[HoustonCurmudgeon]

He and President Bush overreached in sending 16 of the Army's 33 combat-ready divisions

What the hell does this mean? Does anyone know how long it has been since we had 33 divisions??? We might have 16 Brigades in Iraq if you include the Marines, but the Army doesn't.

[mark502inf]

Does anyone know how long it has been since we had 33 divisions??? We might have 16 Brigades in Iraq if you include the Marines, but the Army doesn't.

Yeah, the guy screwed up his brigades & divisions--in answer to your question--WWII when we had 80+ divisions!

However, we do in fact have more than 16 U.S. Army brigades/regiments in Iraq:

1AD-3

101st-3

4ID-3

173d-1

2d Cav-1 (regiment)

3d Cav-1 (regiment)

82d-1

1ID-1 (equivalent)

3ID-2 and going down

and there are two National Guard enhanced brigades already there--one from Florida and the other from the mid-west.

[mark502inf]

if you include the Marines

There are only about 8,600 marines left in Iraq; most of the MEF got out of there pretty rapidly--as you probably know, the marines are not organized or intended for long duration operations.

The ones left are mostly down south away from the Sunni triangle & most of the action, so you don't hear much about them.