Tommy Denton

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Both of Virginia's U.S. senators -- Republican John Warner and Democrat Jim Webb -- make no bones about their reservations concerning the strains on the structural integrity and readiness of the nation's armed forces under the botched conduct of the Bush administration's so-called Global War on Terrorism.

In the wake of the announcement of the call-up of 13,000 National Guard troops for extended tours of duty to Iraq -- 597 from the Virginia Army National Guard set to deploy in June for 13 months -- a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense last week considered budget requests and evaluated the consequences of the increased demands on National Guard and reserve units around the nation.

During that hearing to request sufficient appropriations to carry out their mission, National Guard Bureau Chief Lt. Gen. Steve Blum told senators, "Today I'm sad to say the National Guard is not a fully ready force. Unresourced, shortfalls still exist that approach $40 billion to provide the equipment and training that I personally feel your Army and Air National Guard are expected to have to be able to respond to the citizens of the United States."

Lt. Gen. Claude Vaughn, director of the Army National Guard, told the panel: "Don't confuse capability with enthusiasm. I can tell you we have enthusiasm. The capability piece you buy."

As members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that has addressed the extensions of deployments for regular Army personnel, both Warner and Webb made clear last week their apprehensions about the wisdom and prudence of the administration's "surge."

Both suggest that they understand the punishing consequences on families that the current pattern of mismanagement is having on their Virginia constituents.

Nor are they alone. I chat frequently with a colleague in another department of the newspaper whose husband is a senior noncommissioned officer in a unit of the Virginia National Guard. The pressures and anxieties on her own family and the families of her husband's comrades-in-arms because of those redeployment orders have been taking a toll on the home front.

In a recent report from the advocacy group Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, however, Warner was challenged to clarify what the group called his ambivalent course that at once offered criticism of escalation while also generally supporting the president.

Fair or not, such criticisms are predictable when public servants like Warner are called upon to make hard decisions on issues that suggest, at minimum, official misfeasance.

As for the effects on Virginians of the recent decision to advance the surge and redeployment, Americans Against Escalation point to the report from the Iraq Study Group that expressed deep skepticism about the very concept of the surge.

Last month, the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves released a report finding that 90 percent of National Guard units were not prepared for combat duty in Iraq. The commission concluded that the readiness of the Guard was "unacceptable" and at the lowest point in 35 years.

The strain on Virginia units should be of special concern to all members of the state's congressional delegation. According to a report in February by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Virginia had only 39.7 percent of the authorized equipment inventory for it units.

"We are definitely short trucks, all-wheeled vehicles, as well as radios, bulldozers and other gear," said Col. Robert Simpson, director of the joint staff for the Virginia National Guard, in an interview with The Washington Post.

Besides the 93 Virginians killed in Iraq as of this writing, other aspects of the human toll also demand greater concern by the commander in chief and his advisers. Already 12,531 Virginians have served or are serving in Iraq from Virginia Guard and Reserve units. Those units are showing the strain of inadequate preparedness to meet domestic emergencies as well.

The misguided policy of the escalation is stretching Virginia's Guard and Reserve human and material resources too thin. The same is true in other states. That's no way to run a war, or anything else.

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My April 15 column inexcusably neglected to cite as a reference an essay by Benjamin Wittes in the April 2 edition of The New Republic. I apologize for the unintended omission.

Denton's column appears in the Sundays and Tuesday editions of The Roanoke Times.