Bush's War on the States

By: The Grey Havens
Published On: 5/14/2007 8:58:42 AM

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Governors from around the country are decrying the President's ill-advised overuse of the National Guard for ongoing operations in the Iraqi Occupation:

As wildfires, floods and tornadoes batter the nation, the readiness of the National Guard to deal with those disasters, as well as potential terrorist assaults, is so depleted by deployments to foreign wars and equipment shortfalls that Congress is considering moves to curtail the president's powers over the Guard and require the Defense Department to analyze how prepared the country is for domestic emergencies.

The debate over the state of the National Guard has been intensifying for several years, but a powerful tornado in Kansas early this month has spun the topic back into the spotlight.

As the effects of the climate crisis are felt more and more acutely nationwide, can the nation afford to turn a blind eye to the needs of working Americans here at home in order to support the President's failed and addle-brained policies?

Comments



Is this Bush's idea of Homeland Defense? (Dianne - 5/14/2007 9:25:07 AM)
Very good diary and someting we should be concerned about.  From the Chicago Tribune article:  Missing equipment-much of which has been shipped to Iraq or destroyed there-is a large part of the problem. Certain states are worse off: Arizona has just 34 percent of its allotted equipment; New Jersey and Idaho 42 percent; and Louisiana, ground zero for the worst natural disaster in modern memory, remains at less than 50 percent.


Good Diary (Rebecca - 5/14/2007 10:20:49 AM)
We need to be concerned with blurring the duties of the National Guard, the military, and mercenaries (i.e. Blackwater).

First, who wants a national guard trained to kill folks? In other words trained to shoot first and ask questions later. That's what we will get when these people get home from Iraq. We will get people trained to operate in a war zone and not among American civilians.

Another problem which stems from this confusion of duties is that the military now seems to have permission to roll tanks and carry military equipment into our communities. This violates the Posse Commitatus act which was instituted after the Civil War when Northern solders were acting as police in the South. -Except they often forgot the war was over and continued to rape and pillage the civilians.This is what can happen when you allow the military to perform domestic duties.

Then, as we saw in New Orleans, in the absence of the Guard mercenaries (read Blackwater) are brought in. They are not trained for FEMA duties and seem to concentrate on taking away guns and threatening the public. They terrible thing about that is now they cannot be prosecuted under foreign or domestic laws so if they shoot you by mistake its just an OOOPS!! -and nothing more.

All these situations set up the country as extremely vulnerable to a militariy coup, most probably driven by mercenaries. Its something which should concern us all.



Impact in VA ? (hereinva - 5/14/2007 11:04:29 AM)
Hurricane season is around the corner and based on the 2003 impact of Hurricane Isabell (only a category 1) - VA better have a back up plan.

Norquist et al are part of the YOYO crowd:  Can't afford medical care ? Lost your job ? House got swept away in a flood ? Lost your retirement pension ? hurricane/tornado wipe out your city, nieghborhood ? Norquist et al answer : "You're On You're Own" with measurable disastrous results. 

 



Agreed (Rebecca - 5/14/2007 1:36:35 PM)
We need to ask ourselves if we live in a nation for the the people and by the people, or a nation for bathtub murderers and by bathtub murderers.

What we saw in New Orleans after Katrina (and continuing today) is the result of drowning the government in a bathtub. Trouble is, the government works for the people and its job is to protect us. If its not there the people are drowned in the bathtub along with the government.