BRAC Early Bird for July 23, 2005 Page: 3 of 25
This text is part of the collection entitled: Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission and was provided to UNT Digital Library by the UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.
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round of military base closings to spare
installations back home.
In a statement, the administration said it would
"strongly oppose any amendment to weaken,
delay or repeal" the base-closing process. The
statement said Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld would recommend that Bush veto any
bill that includes such a provision.
Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota,
who is trying to save Ellsworth Air Force Base,
late Thursday proposed an amendment to the
defense bill that would require the Pentagon to
complete several operational reviews and return
U.S. troops from Iraq before Congress signs off
on the final version of the base-closing plan.
Thune's amendment has the support of
Republicans and Democrats from Maine,
Connecticut, New Jersey and New Mexico.
The Senate debated the bill Friday but may not
complete work on it until September.
It's unclear whether Senate leaders and top
members of the Senate Armed Services
Committee who oppose the provision - GOP
Sens. John Warner of Virginia and John McCain
of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of
Michigan - have the votes to defeat it.
Base closings "should not occur while this
country is engaged in a major war," Thune said.
Warner said the provision would "hold in limbo"
the entire base-closing process. "You'd put a
cloud of indecision and doubt over all the
communities that will be affected," Warner said.
Thune's amendment is not the only one that
could jeopardize the defense bill.
In its statement outlining its positions on the bill,
the administration also said Bush advisers would
recommend a veto if the bill includes provisions
regulating the treatment of terrorism suspects in
U.S. custody or establishing a commission to
review their handling.Such amendments would "interfere with the
protection of Americans from terrorism by
diverting resources from the war to answer
unnecessary or duplicative inquiry or by
restricting the president's ability to conduct the
war effectively," the administration says.
Republicans, including McCain and Sen.
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, plan to offer
amendments on the treatment and rights of
detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And
Democrats plan an amendment that would set up
an independent commission to review claims of
U.S. abuse of prisoners at the camp or
elsewhere.
The National Guard and homeland
security
The American Thinker
July 22nd, 2005
Tectonic plates are moving in our Total Army
force structure. Strategies and units are being
realigned from the default Cold War stasis of
decades past. World-wide operations in the War
on Terror have shown that in many cases the
National Guard is unable to satisfy the required
troop strength levels for repeated overseas
deployments without adversely affecting unit
manning and recruitment goals.
For 30 years, the Guard has been largely
configured as combat arms formations designed
as a supplementary force to "round out" active
Army combat divisions. In other words, reserve
manpower to augment combat formations in
mid- to high- intensity wars. The Army has
wisely determined that the Guard's proper focus
should return to protecting our homeland.
The Chief of the National Guard Bureau has
announced a major strategy change for the
Guard. Army Lt. Gen. Steven Blum said that
the Guard will play a significant role in
Homeland Defense and Homeland Security.
In an interview, Lt. Gen Blum noted that,
The Guard's homeland defense missions include
supporting Coast Guard patrols of sea andBRAC Commission Early Bird
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BRAC Early Bird for July 23, 2005, text, July 23, 2005; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc18435/m1/3/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.