Will 6,000 Troops Ever Be Sent to the Border?
by James Buchanan
One of the few things absolutely certain in the political world is George Bush’s devotion to a guest worker-amnesty program for illegal aliens. It was a strange day recently when Bush announced that he wanted 6,000 National Guard troops on the border. In the same speech Bush (again) mentioned his (much hated) guest worker program. Anyone with any political common sense knows that Bush is desperately trying to avoid a GOP disaster during the November election. The Iraq War is an albatross around the neck of the Republican Party. The Abramoff bribery scandal has also done some damage and Bush himself has an abysmal 29 approval rating. Clearly a populist issue needs to be exploited! If the Democrats take over the House (and possibly the Senate) then an impeachment of George Bush is a very real possibility. The Democrats want revenge for the Clinton impeachment, and a lame duck is a very easy political target.
Shortly after Bush’s speech, a barrage of questions came from all political directions. One theory was that Bush deliberately picked the one branch of the military that was the most over-extended and over-worked. 75 percent of National Guard equipment is in Iraq right now. Perhaps Bush and all the “open borders” country club Republicans knew that the Guard would be tired and poorly-equipped. The National Guard is supposed to do one weekend of service per month and then a week or two of service during the summer. The people serving in the Guard have civilian jobs (or they HAD civilian jobs before Bush and Rumsfeld sent them to Iraq for multiple tours). (more…)