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Post details: Bush will probably deploy National Guard Troops to the border

Bush will probably deploy National Guard Troops to the border

Category: George W. Bush, Immigration

Lousy Canadians need someone keeping an eye on them!

Oh, wait, wrong border. Tonight, the two networks (NBC and Fox)will show Bush's speech (aka a plea to his rapidly shrinking Right Wing base) as he tries to get tough by putting the National Guard on the border. What is the state of the National Guard? Think Progress has the answers, again.

FACT CHECK: The State of the National Guard

During a prime-time address tonight, President Bush will “outline immigration reform proposals,” including a controversial plan to deploy several thousand National Guard troops to the US/Mexican border.

Appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America a few minutes ago, White House Counselor Dan Bartlett was asked about concerns that the National Guard was under strain:

GIBSON: So you reject the argument that some Republicans made yesterday that the Guard is already stretched too thin?

BARTLETT: Well, absolutely.

Here are the facts about the state of the National Guard:

- 20 percent of the approximately 130,000 U.S. troops deployed in Iraq are members of the Guard and Reserve.

- 352 National Guard soldiers and 209 Reservists have died in Iraq.

- Last December, Lt. Gen. James Helmly said the Army Reserve that he heads “is rapidly degenerating into a ‘broken’ force” because of operations in Iraq and is in “grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements” such as domestic emergencies.

- The National Guard Bureau estimated that “nondeployed units had only about 34 percent of their essential warfighting equipment as of July 2005.”

- The Army National Guard “reported that it had less than 5 percent of the required amount of more than…220 critical items.”

- In response to equipment shortages, governors from all 50 states called for the White House to better equip the National Guard so they can “carry out their homeland security and domestic disaster duties.”

- In April, both the Army Reserve and Army National Guard missed their recruiting goals “amid persistent concern among potential recruits over the Iraq war.”

- With hurricane season quickly approaching, the National Guard will have “more troops at home than last year but with less equipment to handle emergencies.”

- The Louisiana Guard does not have around 100 of its “high-water vehicles” and North Carolina is “missing nearly half its Humvee fleet.”

Well, you go to war with the army you have, and you go to the border with the National Guard you have.

389 Words • 79 views • 05/15/06 • 10:28:22 am• TARS TARKAS

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Post details: Bush will probably deploy National Guard Troops to the border

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