The National Guard and Reserves constitute a vital-and versatile-layer of our national security. These volunteers historically serve a dual role. They respond to domestic emergencies such as riots or natural disasters, but they also serve as reinforcements to our active-duty military. It is in this latter role that the National Guard and Reserve have seen profound shifts in their duty-and, in many cases, a serious depletion in their numbers, their readiness, and their availability for stateside emergency service.

Phillip Carter, an Iraq war veteran who has served in the National Guard, reserve, and active-duty components of the United States Army, has written a new paper for the Progressive Policy Institute, “Rebuilding America’s Reserves,” in which he explains the origins and scope of the present challenge, and suggests policy proposals to address it:

“America’s military reserves face unprecedented strains. These vital components of our national security, consisting of citizen soldiers’ who deploy for crises ranging from domestic natural disasters to overseas combat, have been misused and overstretched by an administration that failed to plan adequately for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result, the National Guard and Reserve are increasingly unable to carry out their core missions.

“The overuse of these resources in Iraq and Afghanistan has created a great strategic risk for the United States, with consequences that can be felt from Kandahar to Kansas. Simply put, we have nothing left in reserve-nothing with which to respond abroad to threats from our enemies, and only exhausted and ill-equipped troops at home for governors to call upon during state-level emergencies like this year’s tornadoes and wildfires.

“More than 500,000 reservists have been mobilized and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, costing billions of dollars and resulting in depletion of personnel, including recruitment and retention problems. Equipment has been taken from reserve units and sent overseas, leaving stateside units without the gear they need to carry out their varied responsibilities.

“Every National Guard combat brigade has deployed at least once. Many specialty units, such as military police, civil affairs and medical units, have deployed multiple times since Sept. 11, 2001. Other reserve units have been shattered entirely, their members allocated to other units. If mobilized today and asked to deploy on a moment’s notice to Korea or some domestic contingency, America’s reserves could not answer the call.”

This entry was posted on 11.27.2007 at 2:47 pm and is filed under National Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response.