National Guard or Home Guard
Recently, Lawrence Kolb, who was an assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan Administration, proposed that we should develop a an additional group of forces, a Home Guard, because we have dramatically our National Guard forces . I surely don't doubt that we need something.
The fact that the Guard has been used like it has is pretty shameful. I'm not sure of the history of how the Guard and Reserves were used in other wars; but, from what I know, it appears that they were never intended to supplement the active forces. It is one of the great myths or crimes of how we have treated the military in the past. The reduction in National Guard troops has made performing its mission almost impossible.
As a nation we have visited upon the Guard and Reserves a terrible injustice. They did not sign up for Iraq or war in general. For most, they wanted to serve- probably thinking it was nice to be a uniformed patriot and (said affectionately) simply a weekend warrior.
(AFP/Getty Images/File/David McNew)
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Yet, the young Guardsman from the cornfields of Iowa, who didn't sign up for war, has been thrust into conflict and it is wrong. When I was in the Reserves back in the dark ages, a weekend drill meant a little training, some great bonding, a possible escape from normal family duties. It was a good patriotic feeling.
I differ with Mr Kolb's idea to create another quasi-military force(Home Guard) to fill in for the National Guard. My view would be to restore the National Guard to serve its original purpose- a small standing army complemented by citizen-soldiers . Let's not accept the idea that the Guard is always going to be needed for our wars.
Instead of a Home Guard, what about some type of National Service modeled on the military draft? I have advocated this for at least the last 12 years or so.
Talk about a voice crying in the wilderness. But, it would work, phased in over ten years or soand giving kids from eighteen to twenty-six a choice of where to serve. The military would be only one of many: the Peace Corps, Teach America, Americorps, or any non-profit with a program or youngsters could design their own. It can't be viewed as forced volunteerism but giving Americans a chance to give back for the great privilege of being an American.
I don't have much faith in the present administration to have any concept of "new or different ideas" from Mr. Kolb or anybody for that matter. Some speech writer probably wrote in something like "freedom corps" or "civilian reserve corp" mentioned by the President; but, like so many things that matter with this present administration, there is no real teeth. Politics has so bogged down the process of tackling real problems of which this is merely one.
My idea is restore the Guard to its numbers in the States and let them do what they are designed to do. No more fighting misadventures overseas. Increase the size of the active Army where they can do the job if needed anywhere in the world. Beef up the elite forces like the 82d Airborne, Delta Force, Green Berets- the Special Operations of all services. Have a conventional force that can be deployed, if, in fact, we face a "big" war where ground forces truly face each other and not in the sense of an urban guerrilla war created by us.
We have some good thinkers in our country and Lawrence Kolb is one of them. Unfortunately, his ideas make too much sense; and, consequently, they will usually be headed to the "round" file. KT
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