US sending 300 newly returned troops back to Iraq

Reuters ^ | Monday, August 14, 2006 | Reuters

[MinorityRepublican]

WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - About 300 U.S. soldiers who just weeks ago returned home to Alaska after a year in Iraq are being ordered back to try to help bolster security in Baghdad, the U.S. Army said on Monday.

The soldiers are part of the 3,900-strong 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Wainwright in Alaska. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on July 27 ordered the unit to remain in Iraq for up to four months past its scheduled departure.

The order provoked anger and disappointment among some of the soldiers' families in Alaska. It also made clear that any significant reduction in the 135,000-strong U.S. force in Iraq was unlikely in the immediate future.

The brigade was so far along in the process of flowing out of Iraq after its yearlong tour that 380 soldiers had returned home to Alaska and 300 had arrived in Kuwait en route home, the Army said.

All of the brigade's soldiers who had reached Kuwait were sent back into Iraq, the Army said. And now, 300 of the 380 who made it to Alaska will be sent back to Iraq within the next couple of weeks, said Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon.

Those 300, mainly infantry soldiers, are needed back in Iraq "to maintain the cohesiveness of that unit as much as possible," Boyce said. Most of these soldiers returned to Alaska three weeks ago but some have been back for as long as five weeks, Boyce added.

Pentagon policy is for Army units to serve 12-month tours in Iraq and Marine Corps units to serve seven-month tours. Army soldiers kept longer than one year in Iraq get an extra $1,000 in pay per month, the Army said.

The 172nd had operated primarily in the Mosul area in relatively calm northern Iraq, but is being shifted into Baghdad, the site of unrelenting violence despite attempts at a security crackdown by U.S. and Iraqi government forces.

The brigade now is due to return to Alaska starting in late November through early January, officials said.

After some troops and families complained earlier in the war about lack of predictability in the length of tours in Iraq, the Pentagon instituted the rules on deployment duration. This was intended to reduce emotional stress for troops serving in a hostile and unpredictable environment.

Lt. Col. Wayne Shanks, an Army spokesman, said military leaders in Alaska are working with soldiers and their families to address hardships brought about by the extended duty.

The Army said the brigade has not received any assurances it will not be extended even further, but said Rumsfeld would have to approve any such move.

[MinorityRepublican]

bttt

[kerryusama04]

Oh, that bites.

[GATOR NAVY]

Man I hate this. I know from personal experience how important it is to have a date to come home on. To not have a date or see that date change blows big time. To get home and then turn around and go back is even worse.

I also know that Reuters doesn't give a flying you know what about that and is probably gleeful about how this proves the failure of bushitlerummy's policy.

[Chena]

Oh dear, I know how much this hurts our military men and women, and their families. Dear Lord, give them and their loved ones the strength to endure their sacrifices. Please hold them in your arms and keep them safe.

[greasepaint]

sooner or later, the people in Iraq need to make a decision,
stay together as a country, or split up.
three years is enough.

the gov't is in place

[MinorityRepublican]

sooner or later, the people in Iraq need to make a decision, stay together as a country, or split up. three years is enough.

I agree with you, but my only problem is that we have to keep an eye on Al-Qaeda, and to Syria to the West and to Iran to the East.

So we should leave 50 thousand troops in Kurdistan with a mammoth Air Force base.

[MikeA]

Not much longer, probably another 18 months, and we can have the bulk of our forces out of there...and let's face it it's not the Iraqi people doing a lot of this, it's Al Qaeda stirring the pot committing these acts to try to stir up a civil war with Iran playing into it as well by pulling Al Sadr's strings. Al Qaeda is doing this in the hope we'll lose heart and flee. I say we not play into that.

Regardless, seems to me the DoD could find 300 troops from somewhere else to do the job. Take them from Korea.

[greasepaint]

I hear what you say about al-Queda,
but,

what bothers me is that people are suffereing
and dying,,, caught in the middle, fighting-
for or against, whatever...

a political entity that nobody really wants...
if the Kurds and Sh'ia spilt off,
Baghdad is just another bend in the Tigris river

[greasepaint]

it is not just al-Queda

every mosque, every neighborhood, has its own
bunch of street thugs / sub-national movement.

with a partition of Iraq, a lot of that would go away

[Gamecock]

Same thing happened a few years ago with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division.

[MikeA]

A partition would be a P.R. disaster and an admission of failure, as well as lead to a real civil war. Most of the oil wealth in Iraq is in the Kurdish region with some in the Shiite South. The Sunnis would go on a rampage if they were to have that taken from them.

In any event, America was riven with divisions, militias and difficulties too after its liberation from British rule. We got through it. The Iraqis will too. We just need to give them another 12-18 months to get their forces up to speed and they'll be able to take on the remaining problems.

[WLR]

In my opinion. The kids don't even understand it is that 6 wheeled Crapomatic Stryker that is one of the reasons they must go back.

Without real Armor in quantity and the true ability to maneuver our actions are predictable. Instead of approaching and appearing from any direction we predictably come down IED Laden roads because Strykers, 5 ton Humvees and LAVs are truly road bound in combat. Their theoretical cross country maneuverability is a death sentence if they get stuck. Because their maneuverability is tenuous (They are close to the edge or limit of what they can do anytime they are off road and that makes it near useless. Because we are not projecting anything close to the actual power available even with the current deployed forces the enemy is encouraged. We have somewhere between 13-14,700 M113 Gavin Tracked Armored Personnel Carriers sitting in the United States unused. They weigh in at 11 tons are great cross country and can ford a river without extensive preparation. On top of which those Airborne Troops who were reputedly captured standing beside a HUMVEE could have been in a M113 Gavin and would have had a decent place from which to fight and or maneuver. (And they are Airmoble)

The entire fleet of ineffective wheeled thingees are are insufficient to protect US Forces. This results in the unnecessarily killing and maiming of Marines and Soldiers. The whole sordid wheeled vehicle fiasco is sickening. It is costing the lives and limbs of Soldiers and Marines for no better reason than our GQ Generals are in denial about the poor results of their entire morally bankrupt Light Fighter doctrine as it is being applied in Iraq which is a far different place than Afganistan where it was somewhat more effective..

When Israeli troops have the common sense to put together a superior heavy armored personnel carrier using 40-50 year old T55 Soviet Hulls they buy at at a dime a dozen and (among others) refurbish them with Modern American Tracks, Transmissions and Engines for far cheaper that the Crapomatics we are being sold, It is disgusting. Everytime I see a Soldier or Marine missing a limb I know the odds are heavy that he would not be in that condition if we were using the Mech Armor Doctrine we developed and perfected the one the Israelis learned from us and execute very well against an opponent of similar structure and strategy.
Our Soldiers were strapping on Iron Plates to Protect themselves in Humvees at the beginning of the war in Iraq when more than 13,000 Combat Proven 11 ton M113 Gavins were sitting idle in the United States.. Now they run around in 5 ton Humvees that cannot get out of their own way and are wearing out in half the time predicted because they weigh nearly three times what they were originally designed to weigh (and are correspondingly slow) where speed is life. They are for all practical intent and purposes road bound... Disgusting, Shameful. The new Chairmen Joint Chiefs General Pace is a breath of fresh air in that post. Has a lot of the GQ Generals who figured the Army deserved the post heading for the door. He has has a lot of potential. Now let's see if he has what it takes to end this "Lighfighter" fiasco or will our GI's and Marines be stuck in the same old meat grinder for no reason than a bunch of GQ Generals are unwilling to accept that we continue to need a mix of forces and they must be crafted to meet the threat not a TOE Chart (Table of Organizationl Equipment chart) designed by bean counters and Generals hoping for that lucrative after retirement defense contract. In Afganistan the Light Fighter Concept worked pretty well ( but there were still big problems of US Gis carrying 100lb packs trying to catch Taliban Fighters carrying their AK magazines and little else). In Iraq the "Light Fighter" concept is causing many more casualties than necessasary. W

[Hong Kong Expat]

If the Kurds split off, Turkey and Iran will invade Kurdistan and make them wish Saddam was back in Power.

And if the Shi'ite split off, they are going to be best friends with Iran.

So we are there until Iraq is democratic, secular and stable. Anything else is a failure.

[AntiGuv]

Most of the oil wealth in Iraq is in the Kurdish region with some in the Shiite South.

Just for the record, that is backward. Most of the oil wealth is in the Shiite South, with some in the Kurdish region.

[MinorityRepublican]

Is this what you're talking about? M113 gavin?

[Recovering_Democrat]

Amen, Chena, amen!!

[saganite]

Interesting. What little I've read about the Stryker brigade said they were having quite a bit of success. You're saying it's all BS?

[tiger-one]

Had the M113 when I was with 172nd in 1964-66, not equipped as this one.

[Bender2]

In World War Two my late Father spent something like 260 plus days on the front lines in combat. He was in three invasions, one airborne. He was overseas from 1942 to 1945...

No rotation policy back then for our guys on the ground.

I wonder how in the world we won...