Posted on 08/23/2005 5:47:20 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
THE Pentagon plans to deploy two additional battalions to Iraq amid rising insurgent attacks ahead of an anticipated referendum on a constitution, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today.
Mr Rumsfeld expressed confidence that public support for the war effort in Iraq will hold despite polls showing growing disenchantment in the United States. "I think it'll have the support of the American people, and it will be sustained, and we will be successful," he said.
"And the alternative would be to turn that country and 25 million people over to terrorists and the kinds of people who have used chemicals on their own people and chemicals on their neighbours," he said. "That would be to turn to darkness."
An unfinished draft of the constitution was presented to the Iraqi parliament late yesterday, but deep differences remain between Sunnis and the Shiites and Kurds.
Mr Rumsfeld discounted concerns that Sunni rejection of the charter could leave US forces caught in the middle of a civil war.
"It hasn't happened yet. It is not happening now," he said.
"And, obviously, it is something that one has to be attentive to and be concerned about. But I haven't seen anything to indicate that the risk is greater today than it was yesterday or the day before," he said.
His comments came on a day in which two more Americans, a soldier and a contractor, died. They were killed in a suicide bombing in Baquba that also claimed the lives of five Iraqis.
Around 60 US troops have been killed so far in August, making it one of the deadliest months of the war for the US military since it invaded Iraq in March 2003.
The US death toll now stands at 1868.
Mr Rumsfeld acknowledged that insurgents have stepped up attacks in anticipation of a planned October 15 referendum on the constitution, attributing the higher casualties to more lethal and sophisticated insurgent bomb attacks.
"We very likely will be announcing a temporary increase in forces in Iraq in anticipation of the October 15th. So at some point, we'll be notifying people and taking that forward," he said.
Asked how many troops could be involved, he said between 1000 and 2000 soldiers.
Admiral Edmund Giambastiana, the new vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would be two battalions.
Senior military officials said the battalions would amount to extra troops, brought in on top of the scheduled rotation of forces in Iraq.
Military officials also are looking at ways to adjust the rotation of forces to beef up the US troop presence on the ground for the elections from its current level of about 138,000 troops.
Some units already in Iraq could have their tours extended for a couple of months while units due to deploy to Iraq could be brought in earlier than scheduled.
Pentagon officials have said they expect the total number to rise to about the level they were at during Iraq's January 30 elections - some 159,000 troops.
Month-by-month breakdowns are at http://www.icasualties.org/
You question it, go look. The Pentagon has a wite that tracks the numbers by month.
BTW, The deadliest was April 04, when approx 124 were killed.
http://www.defendamerica.mil/fallen.html
"Around 60 US troops have been killed so far in August, making it one of the deadliest months of the war for the US military since it invaded Iraq in March 2003. The US death toll now stands at 1868.
Staistically impossible. If 1686 soldiers were killed over 30 months, that would be (on average) 62.3 soldiers/month. Acknowledging that the distribution of deaths over those 30 months may not be random, I doubt this has been one of the deadliest months since the invasion. I could be wrong but I doubt it."
A total of 73 US soldiers have been killed in the 23 day of this month so far. This gives us an average of 3.17 deaths/day. Thus far this is the 6th deadliest month.
http://icasualties.org/oif/
I'd like to see a 'secret' back door declaration delivered to Syria and Iran that states "from this day forward for every car bomb & IED that goes off in Iraq both of you lose a strategic target of our choice." Plain and simple. Oh, and include the one person homicide bombers as well.
Have the B-2's with their satellite guided bomb payloads on standy at all times.
syria would be easy pickings. it would not be done to iran, because oil would go to $100 a barrel.
We should not have given them one damn penny until they end that brutal crap they call a "ritual". (and then , still not give them one damn penny). And, it is a lot more than a "circumcision". They often use broken glass and they mutilate and . . .well, you need to read what they really do. To call that a "circumcision" is like calling Bill Clinton an honest decent president.
Well freaking DUH! Fewer ducks for target practice.
Crazy as it may seem, I always thought one of the best military analysts was on CNN of all places (General David Grange). No hysterics, no doom and gloom, always sensible every time I saw him. He does not downplay the difficulty of Iraq either.
I'm glad that Australians are out there telling the truth of what's going on. Certainly America is failing at that task.
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NEVER FORGET
The Man Who Predicted 9/11 - RICK RESCORLA
http://www.RickRescorla.com
http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24361
NEVER FORGET
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I don't have the actual statement in front of me, but I am reasonably sure that Rumsfeld didn't use the phrase "rising insurgent attacks." This is a little "addition" from the reporter.
Savage is that you????
This I expect to be the CNN derivative broadcast to explain the situation in Iraq.
So our military has been fully engaged in Iraq for 30 months and has experienced less casualties then the total innocent civilians that were killed on the US Mainland in a couple of hours on September 11th 2001. Kinda puts things in perspective.
Holding President Bush to his words, and asking the Iraqi Army to hold up their end of the deal, makes me Michael Savage?
???
The USAF needs to do some practice bombing these days. How about that nuclear facility in Iran and the IED bomb making facility in Iran? And there must be some interesting places to target bomb in Syria?
Godspeed Jess' successful mission and safe return
>>some freeper with a friend in Iraq posting for Nissan parts for trucks that iraqi forces use (did anyone else catch that?)
I did catch that, but I remember it being more of an issue of "where do I get parts for this beastie", rather than "I need help paying for them". Money wasn't the issue. Well, other than this wouldn't be a problem if they had all brand-new, shiney stuff.
Thank you for pointing me to this man.
Yep ..... I keep thinking about doing a search on how many murders we have in a given month, say, in our top 5 cities.
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