Will troop boost affect Oregon Guard?
Friday, January 12, 2007 10:57 AM PST
PORTLAND (AP) — The Oregon National Guard doesn’t expect to be affected by President Bush’s proposal to increase troop strength in Iraq, a spokesman said Thursday.
Two units are scheduled to be deployed this summer to Iraq, but plans for those deployments ‘‘were already in the works,’’ said Capt. Mike Braibish. He said the units on alert are a 20-person detachment of public affairs officers and a company of 120 to 130 engineers that will be assigned to security duties. Although it has had troops previously in Iraq, Oregon National Guard forces now are deployed in Afghanistan, nearly 900 strong, training the Afghan military. They deployed in May for a yearlong stint in what has been called the greatest mobilization of Oregon National Guard troops since World War II.
They are to be relieved by Guard members from South Carolina.
Braibish and Gov. Ted Kulongoski were in a conference call Thursday with the National Guard’s commander, Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum.
Afterward, Kulongoski said the meeting yielded some clarity about how troop deployments will be handled, but nothing about an exit strategy from Iraq.
‘‘What is the administration’s long-term plan to end our occupation in Iraq, and bring our troops home?’’ Kulongoski said in comments distributed by his office. ‘‘The president didn’t answer that question last night, and that’s the fundamental question that the American people and Oregonians deserve a direct answer to.’’
By Kulongoski’s count, 15 members of the Oregon National Guard are among the 77 Oregonians, or military members with strong ties to the state, who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
