posted on May 9, 2007 06:58:08 AMSomewhere in one of these threads that often go off their original path.....someone make the statement or posted an article CLAIMING that since so many of our National Guard are fighting in Iraq....they weren't there/the equipment wasn't there to help the Kansas tornado victims.
Well....this is just the rebuttal to that FALSE statement....and I wanted to do a follow up on it.
"About the same time, Sebelius was doing her own backpedal from across the country. Her spokeswoman, Nicole Corcoran, said the governor didn't mean to imply that the state was ill-equipped to deal with this storm.
Sebelius' comments about National Guard equipment were, instead, meant as a warning about the state's inability to handle additional disasters, such as another tornado or severe flooding, she said.
"We are doing absolutely fine right now," Corcoran said. "What the governor is talking about is down the road."
[ edited by Linda_K on May 9, 2007 07:04 AM ]
posted on May 10, 2007 07:54:31 AM
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon, bearing the brunt of criticism for shortfalls in National Guard supplies in the wake of last week's devastating tornado in Kansas, acknowledged Wednesday that Army National Guard units currently had only 56 percent of their required equipment.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a Senate hearing that equipment levels are the lowest since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He said that the Bush administration's current defense budget request, which asks for $22 billion for the Army National Guard over the next five years, would take guard units up to 76 percent of their authorized equipment levels.
"There's no question that there's been a drawdown of equipment in the National Guard," Gates said, adding that even before Sept. 11, guard units normally were equipped at about 75 percent. "Clearly we need to follow through with this program to rebuild the stocks of equipment that are available to the National Guard."
Gates faced pointed questions on guard readiness at a Capitol Hill hearing from a bipartisan group of senators, who argued that repeated deployments to Iraq were causing shortages in equipment needed for security and disaster response.
The Army National Guard has told Congress that it had $23.6 billion in unfunded requirements that it would need to get back to 100 percent readiness. Requirements not funded by Bush's budget include 18,600 Humvees, which would cost $2.4 billion over the next five years, according to an analysis cited by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- The duty of a patriot in this time and place is to ask questions, to demand answers, to understand where our nation is headed and why. If the answers you get do not suit you, or if they frighten you, or if they anger you, it is your duty as a patriot to dissent. Freedom does not begin with blind acceptance and with a flag. Freedom begins when you say 'No.'
