[Kaslin]

I am curious how the left is going to spin this

[bannie]

Time to hire more soldiers.

[Alas Babylon!]

I remember when Clinton promised us we'd be out of Bosnia by Christmas. That was in 1995. I was there.

[Valpal1]

The article title is a good clue to the spin.

Troops have been betrayed, the administration has broken promises, or lied (again).

I am so tired of this leftist carp.

[68skylark]

I am curious how the left is going to spin this.

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?

[nicko]

don't know about the left, but it sucks if you're one of the extended troops...

[xzins]

There is no active duty soldier who is ever promised anything regarding assignments. Every soldier takes an oath to obey the orders of the officers appointed over....now that part is certain.

[gaelwolf]

During WWII, under a Democrat president, my dad was sent to Europe...for the duration. He understood what that meant. His family understood what that meant. He came back several months after the war ended. He was lucky...only he and seven of the other guys in his platoon who shipped over with him were still alive and well.

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.

[Timmy]

I've always thought Bush's only mistake was not increasing the size of the military after 911. Clinton took us from 18 to 10 divisions. We should have gone back up to 12-13 after 911.

[cynicom]

I can remember in 1950 when Truman "extended" enlistments for thousands of men for 9 months. They were not professionals, just volunteers getting a hundred a month.

[CyberAnt]

Aren't they the ones who have been bellyaching for months that we NEEDED MORE SOLDIERS. Now they have their wish - and we can only expect them to complain about it. What else is new?