Iraq War reaches into heart of Alaska as National Guard calls up native soldiers.

It's been said that when you call out the Guard you call out America, but not in 60 years has a war call-up reached as far as Bush Alaska.

This summer, dozens of members of the Alaska Army National Guard from villages so remote that even some Alaskans haven't heard of them -- Kwigillingok, Kongiganak, Manokotak -- are scheduled to leave their homes and families for yearlong tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The soldiers follow about 300 other Army Guard members who have shipped out over the last year for duty in the Middle East. The string of wartime call-ups are the first for the Guard since World War II, and the one this summer will be the largest in its history, with an estimated 670 people statewide.

Our native population in these small villages rely a great deal on subsistence hunting. They still hunt and fish to feed, and even clothe, their families. The hunts are a huge part of the native culture and they are carried out almost exclusively by the men.

Having these men removed from the village to fight this war in Iraq is going to have a huge negative impact on these villages and potentially impoverish families that have been doing quite well.

What's more the climate in Iraq, or even Afghanistan, is going to be extremely hard on these men. Our climate, especially farther up north where these soldiers live, is one of the harshest environments on earth. Iraq would also qualify for that label, but for entirely different reasons. Whereas our natives have adapted to the extreme cold that is a daily occurrence for them much of the year, I feel that the extreme heat in Iraq will be a very debilitating factor in their ability to do their jobs effectively.

I was born here in Anchorage and I can still remember how hard it was for me to adapt to spending a year going to school in Hawaii. I was hot and uncomfortable every day. And nobody was asking me to carry thirty pounds of gear through ankle deep sand. Besides I was in Hawaii, not Iraq! There is heat in Iraq that makes Hawaii look like its refrigerated.

This war is taking our people and chewing them up like sticks of gum. We are only putting off the inevitable at this point and I hate to watch any of our American fighting men and women head off to such a dangerous place as the whole thing falls apart around them. And the effect it has on these families could be devastating.

What happens to these families if they make it through the year only to have their men come back wounded and unable to hunt? Or psychologically damaged to the point that they are incapable of returning to the lives that they once cherished? Can anybody say that this war is worth that? I seriously doubt it.