Screwing the National Guard, Again

In spite of the efforts of Missouri's senior senator, Christopher "Kit" Bond and Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the National Guard will continue to get short shrift at the pentagon.

This is outrageous in an era when service in the National Guard does not simply entail response to domestic crises, but often requires lengthy deployments into hostile territories and combat in the face of a determined and often ruthless adversary. It ain't "two weekends a month, two weeks a year" anymore. It hasn't been for some time now. When a Guardsman dies in combat, he or she is just as dead as a regular Army soldier who dies in combat. They aren't just dead for two weekends a month, two weeks a year.

The Guard is comprized of the true citizen soldiers who most often enlist to be of service to the citizens of the communities they are part of in the event of disasters, be they natural or man-made.

The bipartisan legislation proposed by Bond and Leahy would have elevated the supreme commander of the National Guard to Four Star General, and required that the second in command of NORAD be a member of the National Guard.

Instead, the Bond-Leahy provision was yanked from the Defense Authorization Bill, which gives the President the authorization to bypass the Governors, who have traditionally enjoyed control of their states contingent of Guard forces.

Look, if we are going to treat them like "regular Army" personnel, carry it on across the board. Allow them to be a part of the decision-making process that more and more affects guardsmen by sending them to fight and die, and give their families full military benefits, costs be damned. They stepped up, and they stepped forward. Treat them with the respect they deserve.

Under the current system, the guard is kept out of the decision-making process, even though they do a hell of a lot of fighting and dying. To take them for granted in this manner is an outrage. They deserve better, and they are not getting it.

Treat them fairly. Give them full benefits and allow them to be a part of the decision making process; or do not deploy them to hot-spots around the world. There is no room for compromise on this issue.