Posted on 04/14/2004 5:54:28 PM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON - About 21,000 American soldiers in Iraq (news - web sites) who were to return this month to their home bases in Louisiana and Germany will have their tours extended at least three months to help combat the surge in anti-occupation violence, defense officials said Wednesday.
The decision, which has not been announced publicly, breaks the Army's promise to soldiers and their families that assignments in Iraq would be limited to 12 months. The affected soldiers already have been in Iraq for a year.
In addition, about 1,000 soldiers in transportation units based in Kuwait will be extended beyond one year, a senior defense official said. Most of them are in the National Guard or Reserve. They are deemed critical to re-supplying the troops based in Iraq.
Welcome-home ceremonies at Fort Polk, La., scheduled for this month, have been canceled. In Baumholder, Germany, some soldiers' families have stopped marking the days off the calendar.
The top U.S. commander for the Middle East, Gen. John Abizaid, decided that the increase in violence was so threatening that he needed to have the extra firepower, officials say.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was fine-tuning the new plan Wednesday; his spokesmen declined to discuss details. They said it was possible that Rumsfeld would make it public on Thursday.
The tour extensions come at a particularly delicate moment. At least 87 troops have been killed in April, the deadliest month since they set foot in Iraq in March 2003. The number of wounded also has skyrocketed.
Of the estimated 21,000 soldiers affected by the extension in Iraq, about 18,000 are in the 1st Armored Division. About 2,800 are with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment.
The advantage of keeping soldiers of the 1st Armored and the 2nd Armored Cavalry in Iraq for an extra three months — rather than bringing in an equivalent number from elsewhere — is that these soldiers have unmatched combat experience in Iraq.
The Army is so stretched by its commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan (news - web sites), the Balkans and elsewhere that it has few, if any, forces immediately available to substitute in Iraq for the 1st Armored or 2nd Armored Cavalry.
Also, these units have been heavily involved in one of the most important U.S. military missions there: training thousands of Iraqi security forces. Those Iraqi army and civil defense corps members are central to the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s plan for eventually turning over military control to the Iraqis and pulling out U.S. troops.
Abizaid had planned, as part of the current rotation of fresh forces into Iraq, to reduce the U.S. troop presence from about 135,000 to about 115,000.
But the surge this month in anti-occupation violence in restive areas in and around Baghdad and in the south has forced Abizaid to change course. He indicated on Tuesday that he needed more forces than originally planned. He would not tell reporters exactly how many or where he would get them.
Fort Polk, the Army base in Louisiana that is home to the 2nd Armored Cavalry, issued a news release last Thursday quoting the regiment's commander, Col. Bradley W. May, as saying "elements" of his unit "will remain in theater longer than initially announced."
He did not say how many soldiers were affected. A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday it would be about 2,800.
The 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cavalry recently returned home to Louisiana, but the rest of the unit will remain in Iraq. May did not say how much longer his unit would remain in Iraq. Other defense officials said family members were told the soldiers probably would be back at Fort Polk in about four months. They likely will be in Iraq an extra three months, then take a month to redeploy.
These are not the first units to be extended in Iraq beyond one year. A brigade of the 82nd Airborne was extended by about three months
Rumsfeld has said he would grant any request that Abizaid made to adjust the level of his combat power. President Bush (news - web sites) said at a news conference Tuesday night that he was ready to provide as many extra troops as U.S. commanders on the ground say they need.
The 1st Armored and the 2nd Armored Cavalry are part of a contingent of about 135,000 U.S. soldiers who were being replaced this spring by a fresh group of soldiers and Marines. The 101st Airborne, the 4th Infantry Division and other units recently left Iraq, with the arrival of the 1st Infantry Division, a Stryker Brigade, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 1st Marine Division.
While surely disappointed that his troops must remain longer than planned, the commander of the 2nd Armored Cavalry has told them they should be ready to help finish the job.
"We are being called to end the fight against Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army and we will," May said, referring to the militia of the radical Shiite cleric who has incited violence against the U.S.-led occupation forces in southern cities including Najaf.
Still, the change of plans is bound to take a psychological toll. In a letter to his troops in January, May assured them that their time in Iraq was "fast approaching its conclusion."
In Baumholder, Germany, Matilda Adams and her two small children have stopped crossing the days off the calendar until the return of husband Sgt. Tory Adams, who had been due back this week.
"I was counting down and that hurt," said Adams, of Danville, Va. "I'm trying to go about it differently for the extension."
It's chaos. It's catastrophe. It's a crazy policy to enrich evil contrators that's now spun badly out of control, harming the peaceful people of Iraq and a nice guy like Saddam. How'm I doing?
1804 PM: Benden -- Wed, Apr 14 6:19pm PST -----
Benden
think about this. in order to keep the peace, saddam needed 400,000 troops, torture and murder and the threat that he would use WMD against his people if they got out of hand. we have a 1/4 of that in troops, no threat of WMD and we typically dont kill people unless necessary.
looking at that comparison, how could one not think that we would have problems keeping that place secure?
This is the picture he is posting as his chat pic I will not post it
http://ghstuffimages.homestead.com/files/bc04.jpg
1805 PM: Redcatcher -- Wed, Apr 14 6:19pm PST -----
Redcatcher...
there will never be enough troops...what a fraud this war is...
This (Saltcloud is the Saddam appeaser
1840 PM: Saltcloud -- Wed, Apr 14 6:28pm PST -----
Saltcloud
Nightowl:
''nightowl Saltcloud.....Blair's wife was in tears when her son was going away to university in Bristol......wonder what they would be like if he was sent to Iraq? ''
Says it all....YOU and YOURS die for my glorification...my aggrandisement... my fame.... my riches.... my POWER.
Bush...(and his thugs)...Blair...and Howard..... et al.
The guys who were supposed to be coming back from Iraq were projected to be rotated back about now. Conditions have changed. They are being extended. Assignments can change for contingencies at any time. What's so difficult to understand about that?
OK, so a bunch of those folks extended are upset. I would be, too. But my 22 years in the military would make me understand that this was something that could happen.
OK, so a lot of the deployed folks' families are upset. Mine would be, too. I hope, though, that I would have prepared them well enough to be able to weather a contingency-dictated tour extension. If I had failed to do so, that would be my fault.
Hey, we're in the middle of a war! Wars are horrible, messy events, and being caught up in one is absolutely no fun...been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Once started, wars need to be left to the commanders on the ground, politicians need to stay the heck out of the road, and pundits need to do what pundits do.
If Mr. Kerry were any kind of real veteran, he would understand this simple concept and not be working so hard to screw things up and get more American kids killed...cause sure as God made little green apples, that's exactly what he and his buds are doing. If the Democrat power figures and the media had any real loyalty to those kids and their commanders, they would be acting a heck of a lot differently than they are.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.