Wednesday, August 08, 2007
National Guard Extensions Hit Home
There have been many stories about the effect of extended National Guard deployments in Iraq. Most have focused on Katrina or the recent flooding in the Midwest. However, somewhat lost in the swirl of the politics, the recent firing of Doraville Police Chief John King brings it all home. One of the alledged reasons for the dismissal was his absence due to 18 months of deployment in Iraq. 18 months!
I'm not sympathetic to the Doraville City Council at this point but if you step back to view the bigger picture, one has to wonder just how small towns throughout the land are coping with losing vital citizens for months on end.
The Guard are our sisters and brothers and we should be proud of their service. But we should also be concerned that their gross mishandling is causing the tainted tentacles of mismanagement to reach down to the very neighborhoods in which we live.
h/t: Dorablog
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8 comments:
This is an interesting post considering how much rural America has had to pay for this war in sending its sons in.
I'm just not sure what we can do about it. the whole war is so far beyond anything we can do at this point, there just isnt a lot to say.
Supposedly the mandate for 2006 Congressional turnover was to get us out of Iraq, true or not, there are more soldiers in Iraq today than there were in January 2007. A little off the subject, but food for thought. Thanks for bringing the situation to our attention.
"One of the alledged reasons for the dismissal was his absence due to 18 months of deployment in Iraq."
You know, you've got to be kinda dumb to say you're firing someone for an illegal reason in public.
I'm pretty sure Chief Kings attorneys will make that very argument.
Here's the thing. The National Guard's purpose is to protect this country here at home. Not to be deployed forever in a foreign land. And I dare anyone to call that a liberal position.
It's ironic in a very sad way that Dubya joined the National Guard to stay out of Vietnam, but has no problem sending poorly equipped Guard units to Iraq for one extended tour after another. And unlike Dubya, I bet all those people are actually serving out their enlistments, too.
Oops, forgot to sign my name to that last post. Sorry.
The Doraville City Council is as stupid as they are unpatriotric. Now that the chief has a big-time lawyer, the council had better get a big-time PR agency. What a bunch of idiots!
My step-cousin Stefan just passed his 365th day in Baghdad. (Army) He never complains, is always upbeat and very funny and wry in his emails, but I know he's ready to come home. Alive. He seems to think that progress is being made though, and is ready to tough it out. Then again, he's an enlisted man; the Army is his world. But it's not everyone's.
Can I get anymore on the dead-top of this here fence now...
When the dust settles, I'd love for someone to do a non-partisan in depth analysis of this thing. It is insane, i am trying to follow upon Dora-blog and a lot of the locals are just making things worse, lots of allegations against the way King ran the dept. to claims that he actually came in and cleaned house to make thing better. Are the council members insane? The charges seem so petty, what really happened? What do the council members who came up with these charges say?
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