By DAVID PHINNEY
If President Bush decides to prosecute a war against Iraq,
it’s likely that hundreds of Colorado’s citizen will
play an active role in the effort at home and overseas with
the call up of state National Guard and Reserves, according
to several prominent military analysts.
Some believe that national mobilization could be as large as
the 1991 Persian Gulf War when just over 265,000 were
mobilized.
“No matter how you cut it, it will be a huge call up,”
said Phil Anderson, a senior fellow for international
security at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies. “In the worse case scenario, if you assume
there’s a large-scale operation in
Iraq
, you don’t have any choice but to mobilize.”
Among those will be Colorado’s weekend soldiers who will
be expected to put civilian lives on hold as school
principals, police officers, airline workers, technology
workers and other professions. They could be mobilized for
months -- perhaps years -- just as they were following last
year’s Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war on
terrorism.
If a new war erupts with
Iraq
, it may very well be a different kind of war and unlike
Desert Storm more than a decade ago.
At that time, a large portion of guardsmen and reservists
were stationed rapidly in the Persian Gulf region, according
to Michael O’Hanlon, military analyst for the Brookings
Institute, who stressed he is only speculating on what may
take place.
This time around, forces will be deployed more widely around
the world and for a longer period of time, he predicted.
“The initial call-up numbers won’t be quite as high as
during the Gulf War, but over the course of a couple of
years, they could be,” O’Hanlon said. “There could be
a need to occupy
Iraq
and help keep the peace for an extended period.”
Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks of last year on
New York
and
Washington
, the president mobilized Guard and Reserve forces --
including 633 National Guard troops in
Colorado
-- to beef up homeland protection and support the ensuing
campaign in
Afghanistan
.
“The majority have been demobilized and were activated
from December to October so it was quite a long haul,”
according to Colorado National Guard spokeswoman Army Capt.
Holly Peterson. “We still have a few cats and dogs out
there, mostly security forces.”
In the state, a total of 1,400 belong to the Colorado Air
National Guard and 3,300 in the Colorado Army National
Guard.
“More than 700 were activated during the Gulf War,”
Peterson said.
Coloradoans called up in the past year included Guardists
with the Pueblo-based Bravo Company of 5th Battalion, 19th
Special Forces Group. Approximately 80 were mobilized last
December and served in
Afghanistan
.
In addition to Coloradoans serving in Special Forces based
at
Fort Collins
, hundreds of others were mobilized for air missions,
medical, engineering and military police needs. Nationally,
the deployment of citizen soldiers since last year peaked in
June at 85,595. That number has since dipped down to 58,133
at the beginning of November, according to Pentagon
spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Dan Stoneking.
Overall, between 125,000 to 130,000 have been deployed or
rotated in the past year, Stoneking said.
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