Media Credit: cbsnews.com

10/14/04

The National Guard expected to have gained 56,000 recruits by September. Lieut. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said that he was likely to end up with about 51,000 recruits this year. This is the first time since 1994 that the National Guard did not meet their expectations for troops.

Here are some of the reasons.

Troops that are currently deployed to Iraq usually spend 12 month tours there now, as compared to the average seven month tours troops spent in Vietnam. While some army officials have talked about cutting the tours down so they would last six to nine months, no action has been taken. The United States is already overextended in Iraq, and cutting the length of tours would mean cutting the number of troops on the ground at a given time. It would be fair to our troops to bring them home, but because President Bush has gotten America into a war without an exit strategy, without enough support from other nations, and without enough American troops, there is no end in sight for those already deployed.

One of the biggest reasons that the numbers were so low this year is that many members of the active military were not given the chance to enlist in the National Guard. This is because of an under-publicized military policy that is not allowing soldiers who are already in Iraq or Afghanistan or preparing to go there from leaving the army, even if their service is up. This means that troops who have spent 12 month tours in the Middle East are being told they cannot come home. Presidential nominee John Kerry said in the third and final presidential debate last night that this "stop-loss policy" is a "reflection of the bad judgment this president exercised in how he has engaged in the world and deployed our forces."

Another reason why young people are not enlisting because they don't want to spend a year overseas in Iraq or Afghanistan, where resistance is rising. Joining the National Guard is closely aligned with fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan now; at least 114 members of the National Guard have been killed in Afghanistan since March of 2003, and 27% of the National Guard is already oversees in Iraq or Afghanistan, making recruiting difficult. Gen. Blum has said that to respond to the shortfall in troops this year he will increase the number of recruiters, and he will be targeting high schools and colleges.

Sen. John Kerry has a plan to solve this problem. He said last night, "I've proposed adding two active-duty divisions to the armed forces of the United States- one combat, one support. In addition, I'm going to double the number of Special Forces so that we can fight a more effective war on terror, with less pressure on the National Guard and Reserve."

It's safe to say there is reason to believe that many more people will be willing to join these forces if a more responsible president is in office, one who has fought in war before himself. President Bush has overextended our troops, Sen. John Kerry will expand the active duty and keep the Reserves at home, protecting homeland security. "There's much we can do with them with respect to homeland security. We ought to be doing that," Senator Kerry said last night, "And that would relieve an enormous amount of pressure." Sen. John Kerry will do his best to keep our troops out of harm's way because he understands what it is like to fight in a war. President Bush has no answer for the troops, other than there is no end in sight.

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