National Guard Filling Gaps in All-Volunteer Army
“In the era of forever wars, recruits who are lured by substantial rewards can sign up for more than they realize.” …
“{While} it’s difficult to get specifics from the U.S. military about much of anything, whether it’s foreign bases or deployment numbers. … it’s clear that the Guard now goes everywhere the regular Army and Air Force go. Its members have served in U.S. conflicts in Syria, Yemen, and Libya, among other places. They are now deployed in at least 56 countries around the world, from Macedonia and Kosovo to Egypt, not to mention the Mexican border inside the U.S.” …
“What many of them don’t realize is how likely it is that, somewhere along the line, they’ll be deployed for a lot more than two weeks.” …
“Today, it [the National Guard] operates 42 percent of all military aircraft and supplies 39 percent of the Army’s operational forces — essentially the same proportion it provided during the early years of the Iraq War.” …
“God help us all if Donald Trump figures out that he’s actually the commander-in-chief of a force that, unlike the U.S. military, can legally be deployed for law enforcement purposes inside the United States itself. He remains a flailing, failing president, with the sensibility of an autocrat who, from the beginning of his time in office, has conflated the protection of the country with the protection of Donald J. Trump and his obsessions.”
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