Where is the National Guard?
Today, we all extend our sympathies and prayers to those devastated by the wildfires in California. Millions of Americans are impacted by this natural disaster.
Neighbors should help neighbors in their time of need. As Governor of New Mexico, I ordered two fire crews (strike teams, with 5 engines and 21 crew members each) to California. As a candidate for President, I donated to the American Red Cross and I encourage you to do so as well, click here to do so.
But as someone who believes the war in Iraq is a complete disaster and that we need to get our troops out now (www.getourtroopsout.com), I look at the natural disaster in California and feel compelled to also ask President Bush and every candidate who thinks it is okay for our troops to remain in Iraq until 2013 or longer - where is our National Guard?
It is a sad irony that yesterday, the very day I sent fire crews to California, 300 more New Mexico National Guard members were sent to Iraq. Just when we need them most at home, more of our brave men and women, true public servants, are sent away to a war we cannot win.
Never before in our history has our National Guard, a group of dedicated men and women who serve our country and provide critical aid in the time of natural disasters been used, and re-used, for so long to fight a war tens of thousands of miles away.
In California, the Guard force is authorized to have over 21,000 members. Today, that number is just under 15,000. Why the decline? I believe it has nothing to do with a diminished commitment to service, but rather is a frustration with having that commitment abused, and families turned upside down, just so President Bush can continue to pretend his war can succeed.
George Bush, his Republican friends and the Democrats who continue to allow this war to continue have not only broken our military, they've broken our National Guard.
The news this morning had images of Americans fleeing to a huge sports arena for shelter during a natural disaster that struck a familiar chord. When Katrina struck and the floods hit two years ago, a good portion of the Louisiana National Guard was in Iraq. How many people died in the days it took to get proper personnel on the ground in New Orleans? Today, as the fires rage, California has National Guard men, women, and critical equipment thousands of miles away in Iraq.
They need to come home. We need them here.
This has gone on long enough. When a national disaster hits, our states depend on the National Guard. Right now, President Bush is robbing Peter to pay Paul to continue his disastrous adventure in Iraq, and when tragedy hits us here at home, Americans are stuck with the bill. This cannot continue.
Bush won't end this war. Congress must. And they must end it now. We shouldn't have to wait until January, and we certainly can't wait until 2013 - we need our troops out of harm's way and our National Guard members back home where they belong.
Join my call at www.getourtroopsout.com to push Congress to begin ending this war now. Not in January, not next spring, not next year - now.
The war in Iraq is a tragedy, and compounding it by leaving our citizens here at home defenseless is an even greater crime.
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Your message remains TRUE on Iraq, Governor, and the citizens electing ANY President interested in keeping troops there - is voting to extend OUR national shame and disgrace, not to mention it's a vote for many more people to die.
It seems that the lok-schtep desire of most front-running candidates to keep OUR troops in IRAQ for years to come, points at the possible participants of closed-door agreements, and the appearance to citizens is exactly like the price fixing between OIL companies that goes on at the pump.
And, we now know the objective of the energy companies is not just oil, but that now they've said they'll accept far lesser oil proftis if they get the entire Iraqi natural gas reserve ...FOR FREE!
As a NATION, we have a choice 2 possible messages to send the ENTIRE WORLD EVERY DAY, we are either;
the type of nation that makes WAR on other nations to take their natural resources for OUR corporations,
or,
the type of nation that wants to STOP aggressors that attempt such behavior.
There's not a lot of wiggle room with ...imperia
It's also important to stand up for honesty which is perhaps the most important thing to have in a president.
You say the frontrunners want to keep troops in Iraq for years to come. Please cancel John Edwards out of that list. I have corrected the Richardson campaign on their error in this regard.
Edwards is committed to having all combat troops out within 9-10 months. Any troops that stay will be non-combat Marines to guard the Embassy and non-combat troops to guard humanitarian workers.
Again, make certain you do the research before you make any statements. If we want honest presidents, we need to be honest ourselves and insist on honesty from others.
Put Edwards back on the list. He has not committed to removing our people until 2013 at earliest.
And what if the Iraqis wish that we remove that embassy, also?
Within a few short years, there will NOT be an IRAQ as we know it today, UNLESS we use force to 'forever' prop up the (cough, cough) government there. It would (and probably should) soon cease to exist without OUR troops.
Governor Richardson COULD likely get Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran to step into the vacuum for far better peace and stability in the region, and WE COULD LEAVE completely and QUIT offending THE WORLD.
And how many troops exactly would be a part of the missions to guard the embassy and humanitarian workers? Why not use UN troops to guard the humanitarian workers? Edwards needs to be more specific.
We have the most incompetent leadership in Washington but I don't even have to say that --there is evidence of that in about every issue we have.
THe USA is falling apart and yet Bush asks for more money for IRAQ while Cheney is selling a new war in IRAN.
Is this all for PROFITEERING and GREED because nothing else makes sense.
Thank you Gov. Richardson for stating the obvious. It's too bad that our "elected" officials in Washington can't find the will to to anything but support our incompetent President.
Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Anne
Just wait till the bombs start falling on Iran,
Then you won't have any NG.
Isn't the NG a state level organisation, How come states can't force the guard to stay in it's own state.
A solution might be to disband the NG, call them by anyother name and substract them from the canon and IED fodder that they became in Irak, while at the same time saving them from the folly of the central administration.
Food for tought instead of canons.
Governors don't have the authority over their own NG troops anymore.
http://www
The National Guard is fighting a war that has cost us $800bn. By the time Bush leaves office, it would be 1 trillion without taking into account the interest.
It breaks my heart when you think what 1 trillion dollars could have done for this country. Large scale wind energy farms cost around $1/W. If we would have invested 1 trillion into that, we would have had 1000GW of wind power. This is 30% of the total installed power in the US. 30% folks! But this would make Al Gore happy and W would have none of that.
Having the extra guardsmen here would be nice but let’s do a couple more things:
First, whoever is setting the fires should be apprehended and charged with murder. There have been six deaths so far and all of us breathing the polluted air are now going to live shorter lives. Find who killed me and give them the maximum sentence. Just hit the rewind button on the satellite spy cameras and zoom in on the jackass with the torch.
Second let’s bury all the power lines that can be buried so no downed electrical lines will ever start another fire.
Guitar...I agree..and thought..w
Gov. Richardson
I don't get it..but YOU hang in there!
Thank you Governor Richardson for understanding patriotic Americans value sound government and common sense, not cowboy logic and "centrist" posturing. Run and the votes will come in 2008. Other candidates may have "well-oiled" machinery to help them, but so did W, and even the Repugs are now sick from/of W and his greasy 'friends'.
The Governor of California should called George W. Bush and demanded that the National Guard and Army Reserves be returned to California at once......
Nesko, there's three things you don't do in this world.
1. Piss to the wind.
2. Tug on Superman's cape.
3. Demand anything from "The Decider."
Such behavior is futile at best. Those NG troops should ALREADY have been available for "Arnie." He should not have to be demanding HIS troops be returned to him to protect the state.
Governor Richardson
You echo the feeling of the majority of America, yet this Congress can't seem to find the guts or morals to do what they were elected (2004) to do. We wanted them to stand up to this administration, restore our civil liberties, defend the constitution they took an oath to defend and end this insane war. They have so far failed us completely. I hope every American takes the time to write to their congressional representatives and senators, I have. Don't be shy with your words either. I told mine to do whay we elected them to do or plan for unemployment. It only takes an email. We all have time for that. Flood their inbox!!!!!!
Can we also remind the american people what these moronic (and cowardly) "leaders", Bush and Cheney, did when they were young and facing deployment to a foreign war. They hid out in the National Guard because we weren't deploying the National Guard to Vietnam
Good point Governer, please keep blogging - we need a second opinion about the war.
Thank you so much for sending help.
What a tragedy!!!
You spell it out so accurately.
What would predominantly Republican So Cal do without 'socialized' fire depts, police, Red Cross?
Who's paying for the stadium use???
Who's gonna pay for to treat the inevitable epidemic of lung ailments in the years to come?
They're buying power from Mexico.
How can anyone be complacent much less complicit w/ this government? What can we do? How can we depose them?
What do we have to do to light a fire under impeachment, getting our kids home.
The best candidates for real leadership for the mess we're in lies in the second tier of Dem candidates, not Hil, Edws or Ob. Too much rhetoric not enough substantial experience. Too corporate connected.
Keep up the pressure.
Frangelica you may wish to look at that new Zogby poll out concerning who is electable and who isn't.
WE as Americans can trump those MSM shills, pundits, money people, etc with our VOTES.
My point, too, Governor Richardson. I just listened to the news and heard the two trillion figure over ten years. That could insure every child born into the US in the next century and not just minimal care. It could go to funding cures for cancer. It could go to rebuilding New Orleans, too. And there would be money left over.
As California burns, men and women are dying in a war we never should have started and that is bleeding us as surely as a vampire would.
It is interesting to note that the people of Potrero have been vehemently protesting Blackwater's request to place an 824 acre military base three miles north of their town. And, a noted Blackwater fan, Glenn Beck, made this statement yesterday; "I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today". Interesting indeed.
I've heard that Glenn Beck is now trying to say that if we had a brain, we would have known he was joking. It's interesting what some people think it's OK to joke about. Maybe he should ask Don Imus? We should all send him a bottle of scotch. Sorry, just joking.
MMMMMhmmm,
The first reported fire, the Harris fire, started in Potrero
Thank you for sending the fire crews, Governor, and for speaking out so clearly about how the Guard is being misused. I'm sure many Guardsmen are sitting in Iraq right now who would like nothing better than to get on the next plane to California and help our people at home.
The primary role of the Guard is to protect American soil. If we are really under threat from Al Qaeda and others here at home why is the NATIONAL GUARD, as in NATION GUARD, in a foreign country.? If the purpose of Bush is to weaken those who would protect their communities from a despotic government it seems to be working quite well.
Imagine no guard and thousands of Blackwater and other mercenaries. Guess who would be F*&^%D. Not Bush.
Gov Richardson,
You are a shinning Light of Sanity in a dark and corrupt room of lunatics.
Thank God for You, and for Your speaking Out for the American People.
You have My Vote. I, for one, do not believe the
controlled and biased MSM about ANY Candidate having a "lock" on the Democratic Nomination. I think You have a Big Chance of Being nominated.
Thanks again for Being a Voice for the Majority of the Population of this Once Great nation who really have No voice, apparently, with the behavior of "The Congress".
Congress, includeing the Democrats are as guilty as the chimp and the evil One for the shameful condition Our Country is in. thank you for speaking up for us as, We The People have very few in Government to help us. what has happened to Our Country?
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