California Wildfires Expose Pitfalls Of Iraq War

[unhappycamper]

California Wildfires Expose Pitfalls Of Iraq War
Sam Stein
October 25, 2007 03:00 PM


As the wildfires that ravaged southern California are gradually brought under control, speculation grows over what could have been done to reduce the damage.

Locally, officials have focused on the need for modernized and coordinated disaster-response efforts, while again questioning the prudence of building houses in areas prone to fire.

On a national level, however, the discussion is much broader. Within political circles, the California wildfires have yet again thrust the debate over the Iraq war into the spotlight, this time by calling into question how America uses its National Guard.

According to the office of California's Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, the state's National Guard is under-funded, mismanaged, and stretched to the breaking point. Approximately 2,500 of its members were deployed overseas at the time of the fire. Its equipment is generally 30 to 40 years old. And, according to a recent USA Today article, at least 800 Humvees, 700 medium tactical vehicles and 50 heavy lifter trucks were unavailable, primarily because they were being used in Iraq.

When disaster struck this week, a large portion of the responders had to be brought into California from other states, including two firefighting experts from Montana. For many Democrats, this reflects a larger, more frightening trend; that the lack of National Guard personnel and equipment is leaving America vulnerable at home.

On Capitol Hill, news of the fires and the Guard shortages provided a forum to revisit legislative battles over the war. An amendment introduced (for the second time) last month by Sen. Jim Webb, D-VA, would have given National Guard units a three to one ratio of dwell time at home, compared to the current one-to-one system. Had the measure not been filibuster twice in the Senate, Webb's office noted, more guardsmen would have been available to help combat the wildfires.


Rest of article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/25/california-wildfires-expo_n_69857.html

[NYVet]

1. 2500 out of 17000 guard members overseas

And everyone knows that the guard gets the hand me downs from active duty.

I used to be part of a heavy construction Engineer Bn, and there was a truck in our motorpool that the dataplate had a 1969 mfg date.

Also, all the states have an agreement to participate in mutual assistance. If Arnold asked NV, AZ, Ore or any other state for eqpt, they would have had it on hand.


The equiptment problems are decades old, and the states have been pushing for more money to modernize they equiptment since as far back as I can remember.

The current situation in California is no more a fault of the current war than my lower back pain at the end of the day is a direct result of the fact that I wear combat boots on my weekend drills.