One More Reason to End the Iraq War

The California National Guard is only at 50% readiness to respond to natural disasters such as a major earthquake or major wildfires, thanks to the Iraq War. California warned the federal government in May of the shortfall, but apparently it fell on deaf ears.

Now, as 14 major wildfires rage across the state, those earlier warnings are materializing. While California currently has approximately 1,500 Guardsmen serving in Iraq, the strains on the disaster response teams are compounded by the missing personnel and equipment.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said, “Right now we are down 50 percent in terms of our National Guard equipment because they’re all in Iraq. The equipment — half of the equipment, so we really will need help.” California Lieutenant Gov. John Garamendi (D) said on Harball yesterday, “What we really need are those firefighters, we need the equipment, we need, frankly, we need those troops back from Iraq.”

When asked about California’s concerns of depleted equipment caused by the Iraq war, White House spokesman Dana Perino said yesterday, “I haven’t heard that specifically.”

Our thoughts are with our many friends and family that have been hopefully only temporarily displaced

Photo by Flickr user slworking2 used under a Creative Common license