Destroying the National Guard

September 25, 2004
Destroying the National Guard

by William S. Lind
The unit knew it would soon be shipped to the front. Some soldiers responded
by deserting. Others got drunk and fought. In response, officers locked the
unit in its barracks, allowing the troops out only to drill, not even to
smoke a
cigarette, until it could be put on the transport that would take it into
combat.
It sounds as if I am describing some third echelon Soviet infantry regiment
in, say, 1942. In fact, I am talking about the 1st Battalion of the 178th
Field
Artillery Regiment, South Carolina National Guard, in September 2004.
According to a front-page story in the Sept. 19 Washington Post, the unit
was
disintegrating even before it was deployed to Iraq. One shudders to think
what will
happen once it gets there and finds itself under daily attack from skilled
enemies it cannot identify.
One of the likely effects of the disastrous war in Iraq will be the
destruction of an old American institution, the National Guard. Desperate
for troops as
the situation in Iraq deteriorates, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is using
the National Guard in a mission for which it was never intended: carrying on
a
"war of choice" halfway around the world. Most Guardsmen enlisted expecting
to
help their neighbors in natural disasters, or perhaps maintain order locally
in the event of rioting. They never signed up for Vietnam II.
Yes, the Guard was mobilized and deployed overseas in both World Wars, but
those were true national wars, in which the American people were all
involved
one way or another. Cabinet wars, as they used to be called, are something
altogether different. As Frederick the Great said, cabinet wars must be
waged in
such a manner that the people do not know they are going on.
But National Guardsmen are the people. To send them into a cabinet war is to
misuse them in a way that will destroy them. Even in the American
Revolution,
militiamen were seldom asked to fight outside their own state. When they
were,
they usually responded by deserting.
The fault does not lie with the soldiers of the National Guard. Even within
their units, they are being horribly misused. One of the Guard's strengths
is
unit cohesion: members of a unit come from the same place and usually know
each
other well, both in the unit, where they serve long-term, and often in the
local community as well. In the case of the 1st Battalion, 178th Field
Artillery, the Post reports that "to fully man the unit, scores of soldiers
were pulled
in from different Guard outfits, some voluntarily, some on orders." Cohesion
went out the window. One soldier in the unit said, "Our moral isn't high
enough for us to be away for 18 months. I think a lot of guys will break
down in
Iraq." That is always what happens when unit cohesion is destroyed, in every
army in history.
For many Guardsmen, deployment to Iraq means economic ruin. They have
mortgage payments, car payments, credit card debt, all calculated on their
civilian
salaries. Suddenly, for a year or more, their pay drops to that of a private
The families they leave behind face the loss of everything they have. What
militia wouldn't desert in that situation?
The real scope of the damage of Mr. Rumsfeld's decision to send the Guard to
Iraq 40% of the American troops in Iraq are now reservists or Guardsmen
will probably not be revealed until units return. One of the few already
back
saw 70% of its members leave the Guard immediately.
What the Washington elite that wages cabinet wars does not understand, or
care about, is the vital role the National Guard plays on the state and
local
levels. Once the Guard has been destroyed, who will provide the emergency
services communities need when disaster strikes? One would think that in a
so-called
"war against terror," where the danger to the American homeland is readily
acknowledged, someone in the nation's capital would care about the local
first
line of defense.
The fact of the matter is that Versailles on the Potomac does not care about
the rest of the country in any respect, so long as the tax dollars keep
coming
in.
My old friend King Louis XVI might be able to tell Rumsfeld & Co. where that
road eventually ends up.