On Guard II

Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) spoke for the Obama campaign today at the 130th General Conference of the National Guard Association of the United States, held in Baltimore.

A taste:

When it comes to equipment -- to train on, to deploy with, and to have available at home for war or natural disasters - we have not provided what you need.

And that's wrong.

Ninety percent of units have serious equipment shortages.

Collectively, over $100 billion worth of equipment has been left in Iraq.

And we've seen the consequences of that.

Simply put, the states have been left with the tab to make up for this equipment shortage.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) spoke to the group yesterday.

Biden also threw this out there:

Remember in 2006, when it was reported that the Department of Defense was making plans to cut National Guard force structure and strength?

Barack Obama and I were two of the 75 Senators to send a letter to the Secretary of Defense strongly opposing those plans.

John McCain didn't sign.

We believe we shouldn't be cutting back on the Guard at the very time we're asking you to do more.