"The Guard Has Heard the Plan. Now It Needs the 'How.'"

[Inland]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/washington/17guard.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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If the four border states lack the troops to meet the Border Patrol's requirements, other states may be asked to supply troops, Guard officials told reporters yesterday.

According to the National Guard Association of the United States, which lobbies for state Guard organizations, about 71,000 Guard members are mobilized, most overseas. Last year, about 40,000 Guard troops were in Iraq; with an increase in active-duty units, that number has fallen to fewer than 20,000.

"It won't be that hard to find the sheer numbers of Guard soldiers for the border mission," said Christine E. Wormuth, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former Defense Department official. "But the longer this mission extends, you will start having problems finding people to do it who haven't also been deployed to Iraq."

Some states with large National Guard organizations indicated Tuesday that they were not eager to send their units to the border, preferring to keep them home in case they were needed for traditional missions, like responding to natural disasters.
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