Some Often Overlooked Side Effects Of Calling Out The National Guard

I don't know if I've written about this before or not, but it is worth bringing up again. Besides the obvious insanity of using the National Guard to handle police activities or cater to the blatant infantile proclivities of the sitting president, there are other negative factors in calling up the guard.

The National Guard is an organization of dedicated and brave citizen soldiers. They are an important force in the overall defensive strategy of our nation and a reliable resource in the face of disasters. But they should never never be the face of political theater. 

And why is that? Because they are citizen soldiers and spend most of their days as civilians. So calling them up takes them out of their homes and away from their families and loved ones...and puts them in harm's way. Not only does that put stress and worry into their own day to day, but it also stresses out their families...which is a crime in itself when the guard is called out unnecessarily. 

And? Because they primarily lead civilian lives, they have civilian jobs. And calling them up takes money out of their pockets and puts stress on the businesses that employ them...losing qualified and loyal employees for unknown lengths of time. In a defense call up or disaster recovery role, businesses understand and appreciate the sacrifices that their employees make and understand and accept the sacrifices that they too must make. But to lose their employees to frivolity? 

Senseless use of the National Guard not only harms the areas where they are deployed but can do far reaching damage to other localities that lose their family members, employees, and community stability from political insanity.