“In a year when Congress will be authorizing more than half a trillion dollars in national security spending, there is no excuse for keeping the National Guard on perilously short rations,” a New York Times editorial argued. It noted that despite manpower and equipment shortages, Kansas fortunately had enough Guard members to respond to the Greensburg tornado. “But if the next disaster is a Category 5 hurricane, a terrorist attack or a nationwide flu epidemic, we fear the Guard will not be ready.” And with good reason. The editorial noted: “More than 25,000 National Guard troops are now serving in Iraq, and that number is expected to rise significantly as part of President Bush’s troop buildup. Nearly 5,000 are in Afghanistan and roughly 6,000 are stationed along the Mexican border. Because of equipment left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan, domestically based Guard units have only 40 percent of the equipment they need for disaster response. Nearly 90 percent of stateside Guard units are rated less than fully ready because of equipment and training shortfalls.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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26 Comments
Yea…I guess you are right and I’m very afraid. If we get three more f5 tornadoes, and a huge hurricane, and a terrorist attack, and it rains puppies and kittens, and we are invaded by the Japanese, while the war continues, than our forces will be stretched thin. Whats your point ? That if enough bad things happen at the same time our military could be over whelmed ?
Duuuu
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Halp!
The National Guard should only be used domestically. That is what it was created for and the Congress needs to state such in the next funding bill for the military. The wars in Iraq and Afganistan should be left to the regular full time military. The NG should only be called out for domestic things like hurricanes, tornadoes, riots and earthquakes.
It would only take ONE F5 at the right place- like taking a 30 miles path through the center of Dallas- Ft Worth for you to see just how badly you need the Guard on the scene.
“Yea…I guess you are right and I’m very afraid. If we get three more f5 tornadoes, and a huge hurricane, and a terrorist attack, and it rains puppies and kittens, and we are invaded by the Japanese, while the war continues, than our forces will be
If the tornado that hit Greensburg had blasted through Wichita, you would have seen just how limited our National Guard really is. All of the lame jokes are just so much blowing smoke.
The hot air updraft wasping it’s way up from the City Hall would have negated any effects of an F5 tornado.
Nobody - certainly not Gov. Sebelius - claimed that the Kansas Nat’l Guard was unable to handle the Greensburg tornado disaster. The point the Governor made - and she was right - was that our Guard is underequipped. She raised this same point a couple years ago when she rode in the Presidential limo with Bush on the way - if I remember correctly - to a Ft. Riley event. Bush told her then that he would take care of the problem, but he obviously hasn’t. Why shouldn’t she raise the issue again? If she isn’t going to look out for our Guard, then who will? The NY Times editorial was right on target. That is, as long as we care as much for our Guard, as we do for no-bid contracts for Halliburton and tax breaks for oil companies.
Hmmm…I’m pretty sure that the Republicans told us that the people of Greensburg are being completely taken care of by the government. I haven’t even had to give a dime in relief because the US is taking care of everything for them. Even the people of Greensvurg praised Bush for taking care of everything.
That New York Times is trying to scare people. The Republicans big government will take care of everything!
The governor was not right. She should not try and make this into a political statement. There have been NO delays in Greensburg. Frankly I’m glad that some of our resourses are being used in Iraq. No matter how you feel about the war, I would think we would want to protect our sons and daughters. We have many private resourses here to help with tornados!!!
The point the Governor was making was that while we can handle this one fine, if something else happens in the next few months, we will be understaffed and nothave adequate equipment to handle it. I was at a luncheon last summer in which the commander of the Kansas National Guard was the speaker. He made the exact same points and praised the Gov for getting the message out.
Good comment, Cheri. I also understand that there is Midwest group of governors who also agreed with Gov. Sebelius, and applauded her comments.
Actually, Kelly, all 50 Governors signed a letter to Bush asking that NG manpower and equipment level be returned to pre-invasion levels.
All 50 - Democrats and Republicans.
Bush just said: “More of our soldiers and Iraqi civilians will be killed.”
If Bush is smart enough to know that, then he should be able to understand that bringing our soldiers home will stop, at least, that part of the killings.
Also threaten the Israelis with withdrawing our support if they don’t stop killing Palestinians and generally making their lives miserable.
Winning the peace should be the American goal, not making things worse.
Thanks, WSClark, but the importance of the support from the Midwest group I heard about was to counter the argument that the Governor’s comments were unnecessary since Kansas was able to rely “on a little help from our friends” in the form of the Nat’l Guards in neighboring states. Those Guards are just as underequipped as ours.
You are quite right to mention that bipartisan letter from every National Guard commander-in-chief though.
Sorry, Kelly, I misread your comment - I thought you were referring to the letter to Bush. You are right about the Midwest Guv’s.
In my defense, I am under the influence of the barbecue at the moment.
Two slabs of ribs in the smoker can cloud your thought processes!
Hey WS
A little early to be hitting the BBQ sauce isn’t it ? LOL
…
While I think it’s important to have a plan for different sized disasters - should they occur - I think it’s a little silly to dump millions into specific areas - never to use them.
We had MORE than enough help in Greensburg. KS could, without ANY Guard, handle a much bigger disaster - effectively.
It’s good to have the Guard for a variety of purposes, but trying to implicate that Greensburg felt ANYTHING detrimental at all - from some of our Guard being in Iraq, just isn’t true.
We have to balance our proposed expenditure with our probable need.
I am general agreement with you, GS, but the whole point of my comments in the beginning of this thread was to rebut and challenge as inaccurate any statement to the effect that Governor Sebelius was saying that the response of the Nat’l Guard to Greensburg was inadequate. She never did say such a thing.
Did anyone hear that OUR wonderful Gov of Kansas refused to sign a pact with other states including Colorado? Colorado signed with 5 other states that they would all help each other out in time of disaster. Ours refused.Does it not make sense to share services. I heard this on the Denver radio. What our KS Gov does , makes no sense to me !!!!
Note to EAGLE editors/news staff: I initially joined the Army National Guard, 891st Engineering Battalion, in Manhattan, Kansas while attending engineering school at K-State. But I am now out of touch on current status of the Kansas National Guard.
So, how about an article describing location of units, kind of units, number of personnel in our Kansas National Guard. Also, how many units/personnel are in Iraq, have been in Iraq, are scheduled for Iraq, etc.
Of course, we also have the Kansas Air National Guard and many Army Reserve Units around Kansas.
Many of these members also have important civilian jobs that run the gamut of teachers, police officers, engineers, health care professionals, jobs which must be balanced with active duty call-ups and assignments.
This could be generallzed information so as not to violate security issues. My main idea is to gain more information through which to filter the issue of adequate or inadequate men/equipment for local emergencies that might occur in Kansas.
Stretched thin?
I served in the Marine Reserves under Jimmy Carter.
The most elite fighting force in the world, and we were reduced to yelling “bang bang bang” when we trained at Nickle Barracks, in Salina, since we had no money for blank rounds.
Several training trips were canceled due to a lack of funds.
The Press, at that time, did not give a rip about “rediness” —
Anyway, you can not, yet, point to a single case where assistance was not provided, domestically, because of Iraq!
Actually, a fully stocked and manned national guard includes both air and ground transportation, An above unit would have been in Greensburg in a matter of hours. Their response to the disaster in the time they did, and with the equipment they had says volumes about how great a unit it is.
Imagine how much better it would have been fully stocked.
You are right in that it would stop the killing of US servicemen but it would result is killing on a massive scale in Iraq. Many Iraqi civilians would suffer horrors unspeakable because YOUR President made a choice to invade their country and remove their government. No matter how much you hated Saddam, he did run a stable country free of militants, terrorist and militias and he was no longer a threat to anybody. His military was destroyed and he could not even fly in his own airspace. YOUR President had the option of allowing the UN inspectors to FINISH their work at which time they would have told the IDIOT and the world that there were no WMDs in Iraq but he instead made the choice for WAR and in WAR people get killed- them and us. But we OWE the Iraqi people to at least leave the country as we found it- with a stable government and functioning civil order. And to replace that which we destroyed. Until that is accomplished, we stay.
That is funny because I served in the USAF under Carter and I don’t recall going without the tools and equipment needed or having training cancelled. Maybe he just didn’t like the Marines!
“Stretched thin?
I served in the Marine Reserves under Jimmy Carter.
The most elite fighting force in the world, and we were reduced to yelling “bang bang bang” when we trained at Nickle Barracks, in Salina, since we had no money for blank rounds.
Several training trips were canceled due to a lack of funds.”
Kev,You’re sadly mistaken if you think this Iraq war was ever about WMD’s. Bush knew from the outset they didn’t exist. That was simply how he sold it to a frightened public.It had three purposes:1. Recover the Bush family jewels that were left there in ‘91.2. Prove that democratization of the middle east could be easily accomplished, and start a domino effect to that end.3. To quickly acquire American control of a vast oil reserve.Four years later, we can all see just how well all three objectives have been accomplished.
jed,
thanks for a great summery. Someone asked me today if I realy though B ush put our troops in harms way for stupid reasons such as thoes…. I had to answer them that I do think bush lied that our troops are dieing for no.real reason.