Weekend Warriors Go Full Time
National Guard Deployment Is the Biggest Since World War II http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20873-2004Mar1.htmlBy Manuel Roig-Franzia -- Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 2, 2004; Page A01
FORT POLK, La. -- Deep in "The Box," big blue buses morph into rolling, apocalyptic explosive devices. Danger crouches in the high brush and glares down from the pines. Smoke and flame interrupt breakfast, obliterate lunch, upend dinner. Sleep is for the weak or the foolish.
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Not since World War II have so many National Guard units been pressed into service abroad. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, more than 143,000 National Guard members have been mobilized worldwide, with the biggest single concentration expected this spring when more than 35,000 Army National Guard troops -- topping the wartime peak of 30,000 -- are slated to arrive in Iraq as thousands of their colleagues rotate home.
Yesterday, the Pentagon announced that units from New York, Louisiana, Idaho and Tennessee would be deployed to Iraq by late this year or early next.
The massive call-up is beginning to make governors, who rely on the National Guard to respond to disasters, exceedingly nervous. In Arkansas, for instance, more than half of the state's 8,200 National Guard troops have been mobilized. The state has had to call out the National Guard over the past six years for two giant tornadoes and a devastating ice storm, and Arkansas officials wonder whether they would be too shorthanded to respond quickly to another crisis. One-fourth of Maryland's National Guard has been mobilized, as has 30 percent of Virginia's.
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so much for being welcomed with a shower of flowers... if things are going soooooo well in Iraq then why are we sending in more troops?
Duhhhh, dummy me, I forgot--bush* is a "WAR" pResident...
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