Military Is Called Unprepared for Attack

Note from Greetings: This sounds a bit like the "pre-9/11 warning that the Bush administration was given and chose to ignore. Now those troops (and money) are being diverted to Iraq... not even Afghanistan/Pakistan, where the real battle is and the attackers reside. Perhaps this time some heed will be taken?

'The United States military is not prepared for a catastrophic attack on the country, and National Guard forces do not have the equipment or training they need for the job. February 1, 2008

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: February 1, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States military is not prepared for a catastrophic attack on the country, and National Guard forces do not have the equipment or training they need for the job, according to a new report.
The study of the military’s readiness to respond to a chemical, biological or nuclear weapons attack found “an appalling gap that places the nation and its citizens at greater risk.”

The report was released Thursday by the Commission of the National Guard and Reserves, which is charged by Congress to recommend changes in law and policy concerning the those forces.

“Right now we don’t have the forces we need, we don’t have them trained, we don’t have the equipment,” the commission’s chairman, Arnold L. Punaro, a retired Marine Corps general, said in an interview. “Even though there is a lot going on in this area, we need to do a lot more.”

General Punaro added, “There’s a lot of things in the pipeline, but in the world we live in, you’re either ready or you’re not.”

Because much of the military is fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq, the commission said, the country has “no reasonable alternative” to relying heavily on the Reserves to supplement the active-duty forces both at home and abroad.

But fully equipping the Guard would cost billions of dollars, General Punaro said, adding that the commission planned to ask the Congressional Budget Office to do a cost analysis.

In perhaps its most controversial recommendation, the panel again said the nation’s governors should be given the authority to direct active-duty troops responding to emergencies in their states. That recommendation, when it first surfaced last year, was rebuffed by the military and quickly rejected by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

“I believe we’re going to wear him down,” General Punaro said.

Responding to the report’s conclusions, Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr. of the Air Force, commander of the United States Northern Command, said the Pentagon was putting together a specialized military team to respond to catastrophic events.

General Renuart said that over the next year, specific active-duty Guard and Reserve units would be trained, equipped and assigned to a three-tiered response force totaling about 4,000 troops.

There would be a few hundred first responders, who would be followed by a second wave of about 1,200 troops that would include medical and logistics forces, he said.

The third wave would include aircraft units, engineers and other support forces.