Cord Byrd: “as President Bush gears up for a possible war in Iraq, we have been treated to repeated announcements of troop…”

“as President Bush gears up for a possible war in Iraq, we have been treated to repeated announcements of troop deployments and callups of Reserve forces. A fourth aircraft carrier battle group centered around the USS Theodore Roosevelt is steaming toward the Persian Gulf, and the Navy is reportedly prepared to send up to three more carrier battle groups to the region. Two Marine amphibious groups of seven ships each are also already in the gulf. Military installations around the Nation are taking on an empty, shuttered feeling as unit after unit after unit packs up, says goodbye, wipes the tears away from their faces, from the faces of loved ones, and ships out. This is happening more and more and more all over this country. National Guard and Reserve forces have been mobilized not only to go to the Persian Gulf but also to guard military installations around the United States. And more and more and more, one will look at dinner tables and at countless workplaces, and there they will see vacant chairs, vacant spots. The 300th Chemical Company, headquartered in Morgantown, WV, was ordered, on January 3, 2003, to report to Fort Dix, NJ, in anticipation of deployment to some as yet undetermined final destination. West Virginia: one State, the 35th State in the Union. Every Senator here can look at his or her own State and see what is happening, see the same thing happening as I am seeing in West Virginia. These troops may be gone for a year.”