Can't We DEMAND That Our Governors Bring Back Our NG??

[K8-EEE]

Don't we pay for the National Guard to guard US -- our communities?

Can't we the citizens start petitioning our leadership at state level to bring our National Guard back to pre-GWB war levels?

If the Freepers love their Iraq war so much, they can just join the Army and keep that mess going that way. Bring our National Guard back home!

I don't care how many NewsBots obediently repeat that it wouldn't have made any difference if they had twice as many National Guard (and, their equipment) to deal with Katrina. That's just bullshit. How can you look at that situation and say that they had enough resources to deal with it?

[DURHAM D]

1. The President/Pentagon and the Governors have joint-control

over the guard by law. However, this administration has ignored the "joint" part of the structure and usurped the state's power. Governors are not happy - but then the majority of them are repugs.

[yellowcanine]

4. When the National Guard is federalized, the President has total control.

Governor doesn't get to say squat. This actually is a good thing - particularly when the governor is trying to defy the Federal government - for example, Southern governors in the 60s defying civil rights legislation.

[DURHAM D]

5. True, but when the guard was federalized during the civil

rights era the members were kept in the state, or at least in the region and used for local purposes. Now they are just treated like regular army and deployed overseas.

[atreides1]

2. No, they can't

The NG also receives funding from the federal government, and once activated for federal service, can only be released by the federal government, and that ain't happening.

The Freepers love the war, they just don't want to have to fight it,
they want to stay back and fight the "culture war", it's safer, they
can go home at night, and no one is trying to shoot them or blow them up with IED's.

[Qanisqineq]

3. every time I hear "but only 40% of the NG is in Iraq"

(or whatever the percentages), I can't help but wonder how desperate for people their NG is. In other words, how much recruitment is down. Most of the people I know in the NG join for the extra money and because they can be with their families all the time and work a regular job (*cough*, at least that was what they thought before Bush and his wars). They would not have enlisted if they had known they could be sent to a war in a foreign country.