Between now and the end of President George Bush's term in office on January 20, 2009, almost half of the Soldiers scheduled to deploy to Iraq are members of our National Guard. Never before in the history of our all-volunteer military have we relied so heavily on the National Guard for such a long period of time to serve overseas.

Never.

Over the past six plus years, we have sent over 260,000 members of our National Guard to Iraq and Afghanistan and while the focus and heated debate in Washington may have turned away from Iraq, every day, we are sending more and more members of the National Guard overseas.

It's Tuesday May 13, 2008 and on this day in history, The Beatles debuted the movie "Let It Be" in 1970 and back in 1943 German and Italian forces surrendered in Africa but that's nothing compared to what we have for you today.

Right now, it's 7:30 am here in Seattle and 10:30 back in Washington DC where as far as I can tell, not one elected official has thought today about the fact that by now, two or three, maybe more, young American men and women who served their country in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed themselves.

Some may have used a gun and pulled the trigger when they couldn't take the pain or the wait of up to six months that they are told to wait before seeing a mental health specialist. Some may use pills or drive their car into a wall. Some will slit their wrists.

All our brave young and women we as a nation have failed to serve with a hint of the honor and courage that they served us.

This morning, President Bush will make an announcement about the situation in Iraq. For every American who supports the troops, I hope that you will listen carefully when he announces that troop deployments are being reduced from the current back-breaking 15 months to 12 months at the end of the summer.

In short, this is a hollow political announcement.

Next week, General David Petraeus will travel to Capitol Hill and make his report to Congress on the war in Iraq. If, as expected, he announces a pause in the withdrawal in troops from Iraq, our Congress must say "no" for the sake of our military and of our servicemembers.

We can not pause the withdrawal of our troops because we are seeing, everyday, the absolute devastation our wars, with frequent, long, often extended deployments, are having on our men and women in uniform.

How can we constantly churn our troops like this? How can we consciously compound the wounds of war? We are sending men and women back for fourth and fifth tours of duty when the Department of Defense, by its own estimation, says that with each additional tour, troops are 60% more likely to develop severe post-combat mental health issues.

Here are the top stories this week related to our soldiers here and abroad, taken from the Our Troops Newsladder.

Mike Mullen, the top ranking officer in the U.S. Military got an earful of tough questions when he visited with troops at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, ranging from inquiries about the gaping pay disparity between private contractors in Iraq and soliders stationed there to questions about Marines being issued older rifles than field officers.

The report from Veterans For America about the glaring lack of mental health resources available to the Army's most-deployed division, the 10th Mountain Division stationed in Fort Drum, continued to gather steam this week. Sen. Hillary Clinton responded to the crisis, saying "It is simply unacceptable that 10th Mountain Division soldiers who have recently returned from Iraq have to wait for up to two months for mental health care appointments. Not only has the Department of Defense failed to provide Fort Drum and other military installations with adequate mental health care resources, but there is also a persistent stigma within the military that discourages our servicemembers from seeking and receiving the mental health care that many of them need."

In Montana, incoming Veterans Affairs secretary James Peake heard the concerns, complaints, and questions from Veterans of wars past and present. The issue at hand is seemingly random rejections of claims, long wait-times for appointments, and 500 mile drives for care that our veterans living in rural America are constantly up against.

In Washington this week, the Army angered open-government advocates by shutting down public access to the largest online collection of its doctrinal publications. All of these documents have been approved for public released but were placed behind a password-protected firewall nonetheless.

Lastly, a survey of over 3,000 high-ranking military officers provided an alarmingly negative outlook on our military's future, due to multiple and long deployments of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan that has left our military stretched dangerously thin.

Veterans of America is proud to sponsor the Our Troops Newsladder, a new tool to find the top news and articles in the progressive community by, about and for our troops.

Veterans For America (VFA) was originally founded by Vietnam War veteran Bobby Muller as the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation (VVAF). VFA is described as the following:

"Veterans for America is an advocacy and humanitarian organization.  The primary mission of VFA is to ensure that our country meets the needs of servicemembers and veterans who have served in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). VFA focuses specifically on the signature wounds these conflicts: psychological traumas and traumatic brain injuries. VFA concentrates much of its attention on the needs of those who are currently serving in the military since the majority of those who have seen combat in Iraq and Afghanistan are still in the military and under the care of the Department of Defense."

VFA has authored The American Veterans and Servicemembers Survival Guide. But recently, it was a report VFA authored regarding Fort Drum which has garnered the most attention.

Last week, the VFA released its report on the mental health issues facing soldiers at Fort Drum. Following the report, Sen. Hillary Clinton issued a press release regarding the findings and Rep. Jack Murtha will be visiting Fort Drum today.

I reached out to VFA's Jason Forrester to discuss the report and what these findings mean, not only for Fort Drum, but the whole military. Forrester is the Director of Policy for VFA and is VFA's chief legislative liaison. Below the fold is the interview I conducted Thursday with Forrester.

America's veterans know firsthand that the decision to use military force should be made only after the most careful consideration possible. Force should be used only after all other options have been exhausted, and with the full support of Congress and the American people. If not, any military action our nation undertakes will not have full legitimacy.

When our citizens are willing to serve and, in some cases, sacrifice their lives for America, our government has a corresponding moral obligation to ensure that this willingness is not squandered. In short, we must ensure that there is a strong social contract between those who have agreed to serve our country in the military and their government.

We need to ensure that deployment is absolutely necessary. Decisions that require the greatest sacrifice from our citizens must be subjected to full congressional and public debate.

Today, as a result of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and poor planning by our civilian and military leadership, our military is severely overstretched and cannot take on another significant mission with a high degree of effectiveness. Before we initiate another major military action, I believe that we must take stock of our military's ability to do so.

VFA's Bobby Mulller will be guest-posting here on MyDD, every Thursday, for a month or so, Jerome

Over the past few weeks, my colleagues and I at Veterans for America have been busy on the blogosphere.    

On March 1, I posted a diary at Daily Kos and Huffington Post entitled, "What does America owe to those who serve?"  

I talked about my outrage, as well as my lack of surprise, over the situation at Walter Reed.  

I wrote that, sadly, this is the way we have always treated injured service members and veterans in this country -- like disposable commodities.