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"Reservists are being sent into combat in Iraq for periods of a year or more, lacking equipment including body armor," said Kucinich, "and our country at home is left without the ability to call on them in a crisis. West Point is replacing National Guardsmen on security duty with private security. That's how thinly we are stretched. Our military academy has had to hire a private company to protect it.
"Lieutenant General James Helmly has said we are in danger of seeing a major exodus from the Reserves when Reservists get back from Iraq. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld is proposing that military police and civil affairs personnel be sent into active-duty to relieve the strain on the Reserves.
"And the situation our Reservists and Guardsmen are facing in Iraq is going from bad to worse. Two Reservists were burned to death earlier this month when their fuel truck was attacked. The death toll for US troops reached 505 today when two more soldiers were killed.
"According to wire service reports, the commander of the 4th Infantry Division believes Iraqis not connected to Saddam Hussein are taking up the battle out of a sense of nationalism. Those fighters 'really just want Iraqis to run their own country,' said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno. They 'are going to try to use Iraqi nationalism to say we need to get the Americans and the coalition forces out of Iraq, and they will continue to attack us.'
"Our own military understands the situation it is in. The Bush Administration needs to understand it and go to the United Nations with an entirely new approach that will turn control on an interim basis over to UN peacekeepers and bring our troops home."
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