National Guard

I have heard a number of complaints that we don't have enough National Guardsmen to control the refugee problem in New Orleans because we have been putting so many of them in Iraq. I am not convinced that this is accurate, however; if all of the National Guard were stationed back home instead of Iraq (as wonderful as that would be), I am not certain of how much it would have improved the situation. (There is also the quesiton of how service in Iraq may have affected the National Guard who are in the US who had done tours in Iraq, and as to whether the National Guard would have recruited more members had the National Guard not been called to serve in Iraq, but again, I am not certain how not invading Iraq would have changed the situation).

Therefore, I have not done any snarky posts on the theme of "why were they in Iraq rather than helping with the Katrina mess." I don't know enough about the situation yet (I'm not certain if anyone does) to be certain that having more National Guardsmen (that is, at the levels that we would have been able to maintain without the attack on Iraq; I'm not thinking of a hypothetical situation in which I pull 2 million National Guardsmen out of my hat) would have made a significant difference.

Rest assured, if it becomes clear that such is the case, I will shout it from the rooftops (er... from the desktops).

That is all.