Screwing the National Guard, Part II

Tonight on NBC News the top story was about the strain the National Guard is feeling in this new age of optional and "pre-emptive" war.

Sixty percent of the soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are Guardsmen. Federal law governing the deployment of National Guard personnel mandate that they can not be deployed for more than 24 months of every 60, or two years of every five. A vast number have served all the time they can on foreign soil for at least two more years.

Unless the Pentagon changes the rules on these guys, again, our ambitions in the area will have to be curtailed.

The National Guard has also seen it's material support dwindle as the desert takes it's toll on trucks and equipment. IED's have damaged or destroyed hundreds of Hummers, and some equipment has simply been left behind.

The Guard deserves better. When the field of operations is comprised of 60% guardsmen, it is time to suck it up and treat them with fairness and extend full benefits to them. Silly and capricious rules, such as refusing to allow enlisted Guard personnel to be promoted need to be suspended.

And once a member of the Guard has deployed to a war-zone for the maximum allowable time in the allotted five-year period, that Guardsman has earned full military benefits, so give them to him or her.

Do not send troops off to do things, auspiciously in my name, and then turn around and screw the troops who do the job.