Report: U.S. May Call National Guard for Iraq Duty

[Nambe]

NEW YORK (Reuters)

The Pentagon (news - web sites) could start a call-up of as many as 10,000 U.S. National Guard soldiers by this winter to bolster forces in Iraq and offset a lack of troops from allies, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Missions in Iraq and Afghanistan have stretched the U.S. military thin, the report said, and soldiers there still face danger every day.

One senior U.S. defense official, asked by the Journal if he had ever seen the Army stretched so thin, said: "Not in my 31 years" of military service.

National Guard soldiers would likely not be deployed until March or April after they complete two or three months of training, the paper said. Their lengths of service could last 12 to 16 months each including training.

The Pentagon was driven to consider calling in the troops because some U.S. allies have chosen not to send in large contingents of their own, the report said. ---

[lcordero]

1. If I don't get "stoplossed" then I'll be in the clear

:+

[kskiska]

2. Oh, this will really go over big.

Where, oh where, is that long list BushCo touted – the Coalition of the Willing? How many countries? 30? 40?

[NickDanger]

7. Like a lead balloon

eom

[bluestateguy]

3. And THAT's why the draft will be back if * wins in 2004

The well is drying up.

[LauraK]

21. You can bet they are fixing the vote, opening draft, and....

making invasion plans for Syria, Iran, and oily African states as we speek.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. I know many will miss this but

If lets say NATO decided they cannot wait for us to ahem...
I dunno, get rid of BushCo... the force is stretched
so thin that the only thing preventing that is our ability
to nuke anybody who does that to next week.

Conventionally... we have not been that weakly defended
in the mainland since oh... 1939...

Oh and these boys have destroyed the Army...

:dunce:
to the corner.

God BushCo is to the limit of idiocy and well over...

They are IDIOTS!

Worst than idiots...

:nuke: :nuke: :grr: :grr: :nuke: :grr:

[teryang]

16. You're absolutely right

I've been saying this about the Iraq campaign ever since the neocons started promoting it.

The conventional forces were at their lowest levels since before the Vietnam war. In a sense you couldn't have picked a worse time to start an occupation. Mobilizing ten thousand is a drop in the bucket. They let the number 1,000,000 slip in a deceptive article posted a couple of weeks ago. This is the total number of American ground forces that the Pentagon neocons consider "available," including active duty, guard and reserve. This means mobilization of over 300,000 personnel is under consideration. This would provide enough for rotations and increases in Iraq and also to threaten other wars in N.Korea or Iran. Even with one million ground forces it still would be a limited force as one is talking about taking and occupying territory in Asia. This is a subject that the "full spectrum dominance" proselytizers for the aerospace defense contractors can't grasp.

Military adventurism in Iraq has seriously compromised our National Security by committing the lion share of our overseas power projection capability to a non essential mission. Iraqi oil could be bought over the counter and they presented no significant military threat of any kind. Not only have we stripped our national defense to fight a war they wasn't needed, but we have exposed our forces and our national treasury to an overexposed position at the end of our lines of communication. We've taken our best ground troops and placed them out in the open to mingle with a very tough and hostile population embittered by our sanctions and the serious wounds and damage our campaigns have inflicted upon them over the many years. This is plain dumb.

[AnnabelLee]

5. Balderdash

"some U.S. allies have chosen not to send in large contingents of their own"

Some? Is that an "exagerration" or a "distortion" of the word "all"? As in "all U.S. allies have chosen not to send in large contingents of their own"?

This is hovering on the edge--the draft could be next.

[Lisa]

27. and what a nice way of putting it too!

It sounds as though they are getting ready to blame countries like Canada, France, and Germany (who didn't join the Shrub's little war) plus those who did sign on (like Britain and Australia) for being too cowardly or miserly. Anything to deflect the understandable anger of the troops from this self-serving administration!

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

6. one weekend a month

[Atlant]

20. They're going to have to decide RealSoonNow...

> "One Weekend a month My Ass!"

They're going to have to decide RealSoonNow whether to court-
martial folks like them or accept the inevitable decay in
morale as more and more soldiers decide to start using those
famous freedoms that they're supposedly fighting for.

Atlant

[hang a left]

8. This administration

needs to get on it's knees and crawl back to the un and beg for forgiveness and get our boys some help!

[NYC]

9. They need to forfeit their claim to Iraq's assets.

Then, let the U.N. take over.

I don't see any way out of this mess while the U.S. is in charge.

Also, how many National Guards are already over there?

[sandnsea]

10. National Guard is already there

I don't know what this line of crap is but half the problem is Guard people who didn't sign up to be in extended wars. Do you guys remember that photo yesterday in the window of a truck in Iraq?

"One weekend a month MY ASS."

Did I miss something here?

[Nambe]

11. I read an article earlier today on this. It was rummy....

double talk so I didn't post it. I think they are pulling up more reserves to replace troops coming home. rummy insisted they were not increasing the number of troops but he added the usual talk of coalition forces on the way. The Aussies pulled out of 'combat' areas today and Japan turned down a demand that their troops occupy a conflicted area.

We may be near a breaking point but the egos of dimson and rummy will have to be broken. I'm afraid our troops will have to suffer until the '04 elections. In the end our troops and the Iraqi people are the victims. Very sad.

[pfitz59]

12. One more step before the draft.

Recall military retirees under age 60! Until age 60 retired "pay" is actually a "retainer". Non-disabilty retirees can be ordered back to active duty. Wanna see shit hit fan?

[shanti]

23. you are kidding, right?

can this really be done?

[DeathvadeR]

26. Naaaaaa

It's only 10,000 some time before christmas. just to rotate the soldiers that are over there now. If these numbers do increase and it looks like they are building a military infustructure then i'd say..

Knock....Knock.....

Who's There?.......

PeeeeKNACK!

PeeeeKnack Who?

PNACall doodle doo!!!!!!!

[joycep]

13. As far as I'm concerned

These people are stark raving crazy. What about homeland security with all our national guard and military deployed elsewhere? Boy! I feel safer by the minute. And of course, much richer!

[no_arbusto]

14. Security means nothing to them

As long as the oil is secured. I just hope our military doesn't turn on our leaders. That would be a travesty.

[saigon68]

15. THIS WILL HELP RECRUITING

NOT---Only those with a death wish or the desire to kick some serious ass will join now. Last time I checked most of them were already in the Marines

HOORAH--Semper FI

[theHandpuppet]

17. Does anyone here know...

How many of our troops are still deployed in Afghanistan and South Korea?

[teryang]

18. The numbers I have seen

...were 12,000 Afghanistan and 37,000 S.Korea. The Afghan number could be out of date. I recently checked the S.Korean number.

[BeatBush]

19. yea

More cannon fodder for Cheney's millions

[neverforget]

22. "only" 10000? Yeah right! More like 35000-50000 troops is more

realistic. These warmongers have stretched the Army so thin that "they" would need that many to cover the current deployments not to mention the other wars they want: Iran, Syria, North Korea. I read that of the 470,000 active duty Army service members, 395,000 are delployed overseas.

[catmandu57]

24. My wife's cousin is in Kansas national, they just got home

three weeks ago, she was in the "bag and tag" her words mortuary service. I don't believe she is too eager to go back. They flew them into Topeka and told them to find their own way home. Hell, I would have ran home, but it's kind of a raw deal to be dumped out without even a kiss.

[Mari333]

25. My son is OUT in November

God knows he wont be OUT of the Guard soon enough!!!!

[IndianaGreen]

28. Tell your CO that you are gay!

This will force the Army to discharge you. They will never check if you are telling the truth or not. More importantly, you won't find yourself pulling shit duty in Iraq for months on end.

It's your choice, lie to them by telling them you are gay, or get killed in Iraq for no damned reason!

[PROGRESSIVE1]

29. Question?

Are the National Guard troops trained to fight in Guerilla Warfare?

[Mari333]

30. HELL no

My son went thru basic training...he has no clue as to what REAL war is and neither do any of these kids...the most they have ever played war is frigging PAINTBALL.