Our National Guard… 3rd Class Citizens?

This from the 11/25 Los Angeles Times:

Troops from California describe a prison-like, demoralized camp in New Mexico that's short on gear and setting them up for high casualties.

The Guard troops … had been told, for example, that the vehicles they would drive in Iraq would not be armored, a common complaint among their counterparts already serving overseas.They also said the bulk of their training had been basic, such as first aid and rifle work, and not "theater-specific" to Iraq. They are supposed to be able to use night-vision goggles, for instance, because many patrols in Iraq take place in darkness. But one group of 200 soldiers trained for just one hour with 30 pairs of goggles, which they had to pass around quickly, soldiers said.The soldiers said they had received little or no training for operations that they expected to undertake in Iraq, from convoy protection to guarding against insurgents' roadside bombs.

One said he has put together a diary of what he called "wasted days" of training. It lists 95 days, he said, during which the soldiers learned nothing that would prepare them for Iraq.[An Army commander promised that he would make] two field commanders available on Tuesday to answer specific questions from the Los Angeles Times about the training, but that did not happen.

The soldiers also said they were risking courts-martial or other punishment by speaking publicly about their situation. But Staff Sgt. Lorenzo Dominguez, 45, one of the soldiers who allowed his identity to be revealed, said he feared that if nothing changed, men in his platoon would be killed in Iraq.

Dominguez said, "Some of us are going to die there, and some of us are going to die unnecessarily because of the lack of training," he said. "So I don't care. Let them court-martial me. I want the American public to know what is going on. My men are guilty of one thing: volunteering to serve their country. And we are at the end of our rope."

The unit at Fort Dix referred to in the article was from New England, Massachusetts or Maine and had the same basic complaints, inadequate training and the lockdown. Why are we doing this to these people?