Are We Safer Yet? Is Iraq ruining domestic readiness?

[richlevy]

When Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, recently criticized the lack of equipment left in her state's National Guard armory to deal with the tornado, she was exposed to a firestorm of counterspin from the White House.

I actually watched a piece of Fox News where the anchor fed a question to the field reporter, and the field reporter said "Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat". The emphasis was hers, and I cannot exaggerate the stress she placed on that statement. In fact, I can say that I've only seen reporters act like that in comedy routines. I'll add a YouTube clip if I can find one.

In fact, this is not a new issue. The warning went out years ago, from governors of both parties, that equipment stocks were dangerously low. With all of the money being spent on Iraq, it appears insufficient funds were available to address the issue.

From Chicago Tribune.

Governors say war has gutted Guard

States fear lack of disaster response

By Kirsten Scharnberg
Tribune national correspondent

May 13, 2007

As wildfires, floods and tornadoes batter the nation, the readiness of the National Guard to deal with those disasters, as well as potential terrorist assaults, is so depleted by deployments to foreign wars and equipment shortfalls that Congress is considering moves to curtail the president's powers over the Guard and require the Defense Department to analyze how prepared the country is for domestic emergencies.

The debate over the state of the National Guard has been intensifying for several years, but a powerful tornado in Kansas early this month has spun the topic back into the spotlight.

When the small farming community of Greensburg was effectively wiped off the map, leaving 11 people in the area dead and miles of rubble to be searched and cleared, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was direct in her explanation for why the response had not been faster: The policies of the federal government, she said, had left the Kansas National Guard understaffed and underequipped.

Her comments infuriated the Bush administration, which countered that the vast majority of her state's Guard members were available to be called up and that she would be provided any equipment she lacked as soon as she requested it.

The bitter exchange represented a familiar debate to governors across the U.S., many of whom have long feared and predicted that a catastrophic event could find their National Guard units woefully hard-pressed to react to mass casualties or chaos after four years of war in Iraq.