The Hollywood Liberal

Kansas tornado disaster highlights lack of National Guard readiness due to Iraq

Raw Story
Excerpt:
Kansas’ Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius said Monday that the effort to recover from the damage caused by tornadoes that hit six Kansas counties over the weekend is being hampered by the war in Iraq.

According to Sebelius there is a shortage of trucks, helicopters and other equipment necessary for the disaster clean up effort due to the Iraq war.

“There is no doubt at all that this will slow down and hamper the recovery,” she told Reuters.

In a television interview with CNN on Sunday, Sebelius outlined the problem in more detail.

“Well, states all over the country are not only missing personnel, National Guard troops are — about 40 percent of the troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan — but we’re missing the equipment. When the troops get deployed, the equipment goes with them,” she told CNN.

“So, here in Kansas, about 50 percent of our trucks are gone. We need trucks. We’re missing Humvees, we’re missing all kinds of equipment that can help us respond to this kind of emergency.”

She said that because the National Guard doesn’t have the equipment it needs, the disaster relief efforts are proceeding at a much slower pace than they otherwise could.

Sebelius’ concerns highlight a wider issue of National Guard readiness, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) who said in email today that the “war in Iraq has had a serious impact on the National Guard and its ability to protect and assist Americans in times of disaster here at home.”

“The warnings about National Guard readiness have been clear,” wrote Pelosi. “States are not as ready as they should be to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies.”

The war spending bill that President Bush vetoed on May 1st included $2 billion for a Strategic Reserve Readiness Fund, including $1 billion Army National Guard equipment shortfalls, according to Pelosi.

A January 2007 Government Accounting Office report on America’s reserve forces highlighted National Guard equipment shortfalls, saying, “The high use of the National Guard for federal overseas missions has reduced equipment available for its state-led domestic missions, at the same time it faces an expanded array of threats at home.”

HLs Take
Just one more way we all pay for Bush’s Death hard on. The Army can’t sign people up to go fight for the Monkey, so he uses the
National Guard, which is supposed to be used for domestic emergencies (like Hurricane Katrina for instance) But Bush has to have his wars so he sends the Guard over there to do the fighting. People are not only dying for Bush in Iraq, they are dying for him here at home as well. Check out this video by someone who is on the scene in Kansas

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 7:36 am and is filed under H.L. News, Main Blog (All Posts). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.