Montana call for Iraq troop return sparks debate

12 Mar 2005 00:59:16 GMT By Laura Zuckerman SULA, Mont., March 11 (Reuters) -

Newly elected Gov. Brian Schweitzer infuriated Republican lawmakers -- the minority party in state government for the first time in more than a decade -- who see his request as a back-door way to criticize the Bush administration over Iraq.

Montana's Democratic governor has touched off a political fight with state Republicans after calling for the return of National Guard troops serving in Iraq to help out during what many fear will be a record-setting wildfire season.

"He's figured out how to use the wildfire season to protest the Iraq war," said Senate Minority Leader Bob Keenan said on Tuesday. "It's an anti-war statement and condemnation of Bush's actions." The governor and his supporters deny those charges in a growing political battle that comes as weather experts say a seven-year drought and a severely reduced snowpack could lead to a devastating summer of wildfires.

They also worry that limited resources stretched thinner by National Guardsmen serving overseas could make it difficult to combat the kind of massive blazes that engulfed the state in 2000 when some 2,400 wildfires torched nearly 950,000 acres of mostly public land.

"Everything right now is pointing to the possibility of a large and damaging fire season," said Bruce Thoricht, meteorologist with the federal Northern Rockies Coordination Center in Missoula. Gov. Schweitzer ignited the firestorm last week when he said Montana, which backed Bush's re-election, would disproportionately suffer the pain of proposed cuts in the federal budget, with money targeted for firefighting slashed in half.

Democrats also say the drought-plagued, fire-prone Western state about the size of Germany never has enough resources to fight summer blazes even with all the troops at home. "I would be remiss as chief executive of Montana not to look at the cards I'm dealt and not recognize it's not a good hand and we need new cards," the governor told Reuters earlier this week. As fire season approaches, about 1,500 of Montana's 3,500 National Guard troops have been deployed on federal active duty, said Montana Guard spokesman Maj. Scott Smith.

Smith declined to weigh in on the governor's position but a Pentagon spokesman Lt. Colonel Mike Milord said in an e-mail on Tuesday the state's Guard force was at 56 percent and that deals with neighboring states would provide for more troops during emergencies this summer.

And the bulk of the Guard's helicopters -- critical in shuttling fire crews and equipment to blazes -- are unavailable, either because they are in Iraq or their aviation officers are absent.