Should Iowa have a state militia?
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Gazette guest columnist Benjamin R. Cashner says Iowa should have a state militia.
“After Superstorm Sandy ravaged the eastern seaboard, the states of New York and Virginia, in addition to their National Guard forces, called upon another cost-effective crisis response asset that Iowa currently lacks: state guard units,” writes Cashner, a freelance writer in Monticello who served as an infantryman in the Iowa Army National Guard from 1992 to 1998. “Twenty-two states (and Puerto Rico) have active state guards, which are sometimes known as state militias or state defense forces, or SDFs.
“Unlike the National Guard, which is operated by the state and federal governments, SDFs are funded and operated solely under the authority of the state,” Cashner says. “They are under the command of the state governor and cannot be called into federal service. While the National Guard has proved itself to be extremely good at its job, SDFs offer several advantages that allow them to nicely complement National Guard forces.
“Since 9/11, the National Guard has proved itself to be a valuable asset to the national defense establishment. Forming a state guard would provide Iowa with a cost-effective local supplement to its National Guard force,” Cashner concludes.
Read the column linked above for more details. Should Iowa create a state guard/militia, as 22 other states have done?
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Sure. Some who wouldn’t want to volunteer for guard service due to the extended overseas deployments might volunteer to serve locally.
And you would be OK with this new (and worthless) drain on the state treasury? Or do you propose that the militia members pay the state for the privilege of receiving training, and that they purchase their own materiel/transportation? Not to mention being excepted from any kind of veterans’ benefits.
What is the point of this? It’s going to cost money. Even all volunteer organizations cost money. Wouldn’t it make more sense to invest whatever this all-volunteer force is going to cost in our already existing professional first responders?
I don’t like the idea of replacing highly trained, expensively trained professionals with volunteer weekend warriors. I just don’t.
Second question. Who does Cashner think is going to invade us? Minnesota?
We have the National Guard and the State Patrol. I would think that should suffice. We don’t need a bunch of gun nut types forming a “militia”. Ask Guard personnel or Troopers what they think. Bet it would be a “No thanks”.
Do not need. Do not want. Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_defense_force to get a better understanding of SDFs and why they are generally irrelevant to landlocked states (i.e., states like iowa with miniscule or zero chances of being directly invaded by land or sea).
Having seen the national guard in action during the floods, No, we don’t need this.
This is another solution to a problem that we don’t have.