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Guardsmen give withdrawal call a standing O

The call from Puerto Rico’s governor to withdraw troops from Iraq was greeted by the cheers and a standing ovation by the 4,000 citizen-airmen and -soldiers attending a major National Guard Association conference Friday.

But there will be no sound at all coming from the National Guard Bureau, the military directorate that oversees the federal operations of the country’s Army and Air National Guard.

Guard spokesmen said Monday that the bureau does not comment on the remarks of governors or other public officials, and it would also have no comment on the troops’ response to Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila’s remarks.

Acevedo, who is a Democrat, said the Bush administration has no new strategy or signs of success in Iraq and that increasing the number of Army and Air Guardsmen and reservists in the war places “our soldiers in danger for the umpteenth time since the beginning of the global war on terrorism.”

The National Guard Association, which held its 129th general conference in Puerto Rico, is a nonpartisan group representing about 45,000 current and former Air and Army National Guard officers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.