What has been the national Guards contribution to the invasion of Iraq?
• There are currently 15,000 National Guardsmen serving in Iraq, 600 of which are from New York. • Of the 400,000 National Guardsmen who have been deployed since 2003, 6,000 have been New Yorkers. • While the National Guard currently makes up 11% of total U.S. troops in Iraq, that number has been higher than 40% as recently as 2005.* • Of the over 400,000 National Guardsmen to be deployed for the war effort since 2003, 88% were so poorly equipped as to be deemed “not ready.” ****** • While only 4 National Guardsmen died in the actual war against the Republic of Iraq from March 19, 2003 April 30, 2003, 444 have died in the ensuing occupation. • 23 out of those 444 were part of the NY National Guard. That is 1 out of every 20 National Guardsman killed.
