Report: US May Call National Guard for Iraq Duty

The Wall Street Journal and Associated Press Wire ^ | July 17, 2003 8:17AM GMT | wire staff report

[ewing]

The Pentagon could start a call up of as many as 10,000 United States National Gurad soldiers by winter to bolster forces in Iraq and offset a lack of troops from allies, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

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

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to sign off later this week on a plan that would set up rotations to relieve Marine and United States Army Soldiers stationed in Iraq, the newspaper said citing a Pentagon official.

National Guard soldiers would likely not be deployed until March or April after they complete two to three months of training , the paper said.

Thei lengths of service could last 12 to 16 months each including training.

[ewing]

So NATO is not anxious to get into this fight, I take it..

[Grut]

How to destroy the Guard and Reserve systems....

[Support Free Republic]

How about the new highway named for Clinton in his home stste of Arkansas? It's a little crooked, and has a long yellow streak down the center. Be careful if you drive on it, it's a little slick.

Manufacturers announced today that they will be stocking America's shelves this week with "Clinton Soup, to honor one of the nation's most distingushed men". It consists primariy of a weenie in hot water.

Free Republic

Your donations keep us laughing at liberals

[ewing]

Time for our so called NATO 'Allies' in Europe to sack up and carry some of the load.

[GraniteStateConservative]

We have Poland a couple of other former Soviet republics helping soon. Otherwise, we've been given the finger. It's pretty pathetic. We should only help those who help us.

[ewing]

Amen, we pay 90% of the cost and takr 90% of the casulties.

[judicial meanz]

From another article:

Twenty-one of the Army's 33 active-duty combat brigades are already in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea and the Balkans, the paper said. Three other brigades cannot currently be sent abroad, leaving nine brigades, or 45,000 troops, as relief for deployed soldiers, the report said

With North Korea looming this is purely unacceptable. I dont blame Bush for this, however, I blame Klinton and his clowns

[Dog]

Agree....... the scandal is how depleted our forces are. I'm afraid we did it again. This happened after WWI we drew down our forces and weren't prepared for WWII. We seem to do this everytime. Now we are caught between a rock and a hard place.

[LS]

I would remove all troops from the Balkans immediately; ditto GERMANY; as well as any other forces in Haiti or other places other than SK, Japan. What would be the force make up then? Would we have enough troops to do it by re-deploying?

[KantianBurke]

How could one build up regular forces?

[eyespysomething]

draft?

[Amelia]

I would remove all troops from the Balkans immediately; ditto GERMANY; as well as any other forces in Haiti or other places other than SK, Japan

I could go along with that I think. Maybe Nato would take over the Balkans, if they won't take over Iraq.

[KantianBurke]

no I meant in terms of volunteerism in the regular forces, it was larger once, how do u get those men back or new ones to take their place?

[ewing]

No draft until the 900,000 reseves are exhausted, and I don't see that happening in a 2004 election year.

[A. Pole]

I would remove all troops from the Balkans immediately; ditto GERMANY

If you do it, who will protect Germans from the Red Army?

[judicial meanz]

Sorry for the delay...work calls

The current Army National Guard strength is 339,000, with about 75,00 of them deployed also. I dont recall reserve strength levels, but they arent as high as the NG.

We are definitely in need of people in all services, however. Each is about in the same position. High tech forces are effective, but people keep the territory they take with the high tech weapons.

There are options. Mobilize the NG, either partially or fully, or simply fund more positions for the Active military.

On the low end of the list is to call for total mobilization and start that process. If North Korea heats up, this may well happen.

[Blood of Tyrants]

During the clintoon years, he reduced the size of the military by forcing many people out of the military by simply denying them re-enlistment. He reduced the size and scope of recruitment and recruit training facilities.

In the Navy, you have to have ships to put them on. The Navy was nearly 600 ships under Reagan and is now only about 350.

[Snickersnee]

29 ID(L) Ping!

[Brian S]

I was curious if there were any reports on military service recruiting and found this article from a week ago that I just posted as a new thread. It may be of interest to some:

Long Deployments Could Hurt Retention, Military Analysts Say

[Paratroop]

Not likely, there are many units out there that have not been called up yet in the Guard, my unit is one of them. We all want to go and believe our skills (Long Range Surveillance) could be greatly used in Iraq. However, since my unit is assigned to I Corps who has the PACRIM as their main AO, I doubt I will get the chance to serve in the ME.