i think this was a post-vietnam thing as well and was creighton abrams' idea. basically the n.g. got a lot more responsibilities on the logistics side of things, so it became impossible for the u.s. to go to war -- i mean a real war -- without the president federalizing the n.g., and part of the intention was to make it so "america" went to war, if we do. it's like a people's army:   he learned from ho chi minh. ho targeted our minds as part of his strategy, and while we were drafting troops, the whole thing built up gradually until we were in the shit. so abrams thought it would better if the president has to go to all these governors and say that he's going to pull troops from their states if he takes america to war. we can still do the raids and the bin laden commando operations but to do an invasion of iraq we need the national guard. the military just won't have the fuel, the food, and the bullets to do it without the guard. that's how it designed. (and for those reading this, i'm not referring to the state guards)
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