Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to send more than 300 Georgia National Guard troops to Washington marks the second time in a month the Republican has deployed soldiers to back a priority of President Donald Trump’s administration.
In August, dozens of Guard members were sent to support Trump’s immigration crackdown. On Friday, Kemp announced hundreds more would join the president’s law enforcement surge in the nation’s capital.
Not surprisingly, the reaction of Georgia’s elected officials split along party lines; Republicans supported the move while Democrats accused the governor of playing politics.
But some veterans and military advocates also expressed worry about the deployment, concerned it could place a strain on the guardsmen, who are part-time soldiers with families and jobs.
Naveed Shah, a U.S. Army veteran and political director for the Common Defense veterans group, said the troops should not be dispatched for partisan ends.
“The National Guard is at its best when it’s serving its intended purpose, such as providing food, water and aid in the wake of disasters,” Shah said. “Veterans know this isn’t what guardsmen signed up for.”
Two retired Georgia National Guard generals warned in interviews that deployments like this could affect recruiting and overall readiness.
“If the sacrifice of a deployment isn’t perceived to be worthwhile, it creates increased strategic risk for the nation,” said retired Maj. Gen. Matt Smith, who served as the U.S. Army’s deputy director of operations, readiness and mobilization at the Pentagon.
And retired Maj. Gen. Joe Wells, who directed intelligence and communication at the National Guard Bureau, said these types of deployments could discourage enlistment.
“If they feel like anybody could call them out to do any kind of job and take them away from their families and their jobs, they are not going to be eager or excited about joining,” said Wells, a former assistant Georgia adjutant general.
Kemp dismissed those concerns in an earlier interview, pointing to the Guard’s long history of both domestic missions and overseas combat tours.
“We are definitely not overstretching the National Guard,” the governor said.
“When we’re asked to help with things like that, we’re glad to try to do that to help the president. And we’ve done that for many, many years. We’ve done it really every year since I’ve been governor. And our Guard has done a great job serving our country when asked.”
He got a vote of support from Insurance Commissioner John King, a retired Georgia Guard major general, who said “the safety and security of our leaders and reputation around the world” are at stake if the nation’s capital is at risk.
“There’s no one more capable of providing additional support than the Georgia National Guard. I fully support this move,” King said.
Democrats accused Kemp of using the Guard to curry favor with Trump and overstretching troops for political purposes.
“It feels like we’re living in a movie. But this isn’t fiction,” said state Rep. Eric Bell, a Jonesboro Democrat and U.S. Navy veteran who called it a “reckless deployment of the National Guard against its fellow American citizens.”
House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley said Kemp is treating the state’s Guard force of 11,000 soldiers and 3,000 airmen as “political tools.”
“We should respect the service and sacrifice of these troops who signed up to protect the United States and the state of Georgia,” she said, “not to advance a partisan political agenda.”
Kemp’s GOP allies quickly defended his decision. Derek Dooley, the former football coach Kemp endorsed for U.S. Senate, praised the governor’s “decisive action.” And Attorney General Chris Carr, a candidate to succeed Kemp, trumpeted a shared mission.
“Trump is restoring law and order in D.C. with Georgia’s support. All Americans deserve to be safe,” Carr said.
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