Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Bring National Guard home

---

The National Guard is needed at home. We are at the beginning of a war in Idaho that has the potential to become catastrophic. Every mountain hamlet and town in the West is under extreme alert conditions. The wildfire season is here.

The Murphy Complex fire happened because we are experiencing the worse drought since 1874. Grass, brush and stands of pine and spruce are bone dry with almost no moisture content.

We are about to enter this war ill-equipped. Manpower will be needed like never before. As an ex-U.S. Forest Service hotshot fire crew foreman, I know of what I speak. Huge fires are contained and eventually controlled on the ground by hand crews. In the past, we could call on the National Guard when a large fire broke out. The National Guard in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Oregon and Washington, when organized together with their heavy equipment, present a huge fire-fighting force.

Sadly, our National Guard numbers are depleted. The armories are empty of bulldozers and other fire-fighting tools.

I urge our congressional delegation, and Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, to request all Idaho National Guard be brought home from Iraq immediately. The leaders of the other Western states should make the same request.

• acheter viagra
• comprare viagra
• comprar viagra

We have our own homeland security to prepare for, and we need the Guard badly.

Dick Dahlgren

Ketchum