Strained, Army Looks To Guard For More Relief

While this is going on there is also a proposal to eliminate consent of the governors to mobilize National Guard troops. The nation's governors are closing ranks in opposition to a proposal in Congress that would let the president take control of the National Guard in emergencies without consent of governors. The measure would remove the currently required consent of governors for the federalization of the Guard, which is shared between the individual states and the federal government. This of course only applies to disasters and civil emergencies. Militarily for defense, the President has always had the authority to federalize the guard. This is a double edged sword. On the one hand it provides a centrally managed front to manage disasters (would have helped with Katrina) and relieves the states of tons of financial burden. On the other hand, federalizing the Guard would prevent them from performing in a law enforcement capacity. The Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C 1385) passed in 1878. This proposal is a direct result of Governor Blanco never officially requesting federal help, so what we have now is each side shaking their perspective fingers at each other. This of course solves nothing. The real problem with this proposal is that the president decides what constitutes a crisis, as seen by some of his recent comments about what he feels he has the authority to do this will only result in the guard being used and abused. So the result is people can’t go home but the contractors keep getting richer…ahh the American dream

By Thom Shanker and Michael R. Gordon
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 —
Strains on the Army from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have become so severe that Army officials say they may be forced to make greater use of the National Guard to provide enough troops for overseas deployments.
Senior Army officers have discussed that analysis — and described the possible need to use more members of the National Guard — with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s senior adviser on personnel, David S. C. Chu, according to Pentagon officials.
While no decision has been made to mobilize more Guard forces, and may not need to be before midterm elections, the prospect presents the Bush administration with a politically vexing problem: how, without expanding the Army, to balance the pressing need for troops in the field against promises to limit overseas deployments for the Guard.
The National Guard has a goal of allowing five years at home between foreign deployments so as not to disrupt the family life and careers of its citizen soldiers. But instead it has been sending units every three to four years, according to Guard officials.

Gay translators

Soldiers versus Bush

GLOBE EDITORIAL
Soldiers versus Bush
September 18, 2006
IN THE FIGHT over rules for the interrogation and trials of terrorism suspects, there is a split -- not so much between Republicans and Democrats or the White House and the Senate, but between leaders like President Bush with no combat experience and those like Colin Powell who know combat and want to maintain the Geneva Conventions as a protection for US troops. Powell prefers the bill before Congress sponsored by Republican Senators John McCain, John Warner, and Lindsey Graham, all of whom have considerable military experience. Their bill, which the Senate Armed Services Committee approved Thursday, has deep flaws of its own, but it is a better basis for legislation than Bush's proposal to gut the Geneva Conventions.
The military has to take the long view because it knows that if the United States strays from the Geneva Conventions, other countries will, too. As McCain said yesterday on ABC-TV, ``We are more exposed than any other nationality because we have more people all over the world." The military also knows that harsh interrogations often yield false information from prisoners eager to say anything to win better treatment. One terrorism suspect, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, ``confessed" knowledge of links between Al Qaeda and Iraq after the Central Intelligence Agency handed him over to Egyptian authorities. According to the recently released Senate report on prewar intelligence, Libi had made up the information to avoid cruel treatment by the Egyptians.
Neither Bush's bill nor the Senate committee's deserves passage as written. Each would strip the 400 or more detainees at Guantanamo of any right to appeal their cases to federal courts. Except for a handful of them, none has been charged with war crimes or terrorism. Some undoubtedly would present a threat if released and should be held longer, but others were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. All of them deserve recourse to courts to challenge their continued detention.
At his press conference Friday, Bush challenged Powell's statement that Bush's redefinition of the Geneva Conventions would encourage the world to ``doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism." Bush construed this to suggest a comparison between US behavior and that of ``Islamic extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective." The proper comparison, though, is not with the conduct of terrorists but with the principles the United States has maintained in every war it has fought since adoption of the Geneva Conventions.
Those are the principles the Supreme Court upheld in June. Congress should follow suit by passing an amended version of the Senate committee bill that does not subject detainees to the limbo of Guantanamo with no access to the courts.

Financing and education

There's been a lot of talk lately about the high cost of education and increasing levels of student debt. With all the fuss, you would expect that lucky high school seniors receive a bill with their acceptance letters for the expensive educations they are about to pursue. Undoubtedly, this is the case for some students. But for most of us, our plunge into student debt is much slower and more insidious. Like drug dealers, the loans start small and cheap, lulling students into a false sense of security where they can focus on their studies – for a while. By the time the full effects of debt creep in, it is too late.

Show me the money

After kvetching for more than 12 months I have been paid leave (3.5 days) that the army (guard) has owed me since 2003. It was 11.5 days last year right before New Orleans. Such incompetence makes one wonder how these idiots keep getting promoted. I think the answer is rather simplistic; when dealing with a problem soldier a commander has three choices: try to fix the problem, attempt to discharge the soldier, or promote the soldier and send this person elsewhere.