Posted on 04/11/2007 12:15:00 PM PDT by Froufrou
The Pentagon will lengthen tours of duty for all active-duty Army units in Iraq to 15 months from the current 12 months as the military struggles to supply enough troops for the conflict, two defense officials said Wednesday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates planned to announce the decision Wednesday afternoon, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.
It is the latest move by the Pentagon to cope with the strains of fighting two wars simultaneously and maintaining a higher troop level in Iraq as part of President Bush's revised strategy for stabilizing Baghdad.
Officials on Monday said some 13,000 National Guard troops were receiving orders alerting them to prepare for possible deployment to Iraq—meaning a second tour for several thousand of them. Officials said a final decision to deploy the four infantry combat brigades later this year will be based on conditions on the ground and named specific Guard units based in Arkansas, Indiana, Oklahoma and Ohio.
The Pentagon said the Guard units would serve as replacement forces in the regular troop rotation for the war, and would not be connected to the controversial military buildup that was ordered by President Bush and which officials say is starting to show some success in curbing violence in Baghdad.
Word has also emerged that Defense Department officials were considering a plan to extend by up to four months the tours of duty for as many as 15,000 U.S. troops already in Iraq as a way to maintain the buildup past the summer.
There are currently 145,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, and when the buildup is completed by June, there would be more than 160,000, officials are calculating.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
'Cept for the gettin' killed part, of course.
... says the keyboard commando behind his comfortable computer, well away from the war.
I was at several division closings under GHWB (41).
This started before Clinton was in office and was called the “peace dividend” well before Clinton was elected.
Thank you and your families for your service and for our freedom.
Proud shellback’s wife here, keeping you and yours in my prayers!
Thanks Mom...looks like this includes Jon, not sure about Mike...guess I’ll find out soon enough
I thought of you immediately.
Ping to #19.
That fills my heart. Thank you for sharing. Not off topic; maybe we should move this to Military thread...I posted it here because it was ‘breaking.’
Thank your son and hubby for me.
Let your boys know we’re pulling for their safe return and completed mission over there.
My nephew, 20 is in an MP Maryland Guard unit that at this point hasn’t been called up, but a battalion of Infantry from the 29th Inf Div (same one that spearheaded Omaha Beach at Normandy), which is his larger unit has just been called up. Whether my nephew’s support unit will be going, we don’t know yet.
My son’s better half is taking this pretty well. Be prepared for the news to look for families who are going to voice a lot of negative feelings over the whole thing. They will ignore those of us who rock along.
I served my time in the military and in combat which I was extended for 6 months but when one makes an extension a big deal they lose focus of the real big deal, winning. I earned my right to be a “keyboard commando”.
Now there's a lovely cop out. Why rotate them home at all? Why let them have families in the first place? They volunteered, didn't they?
The three months, in and of itself, isn't a dealbreaker. It's only three months on top of 2 full tours. Or three. Or more. In the context of how the military is currenly being run, it's yet another straw on the camel's back, and one that shouldn't be there. Sure, Clinton downsized the military, but President Bush has been in office for almost two terms.
Where's the relief for an Army at war? Where's the new units? In the same span of time during WWII we put millions of men into uniform. Why does the burden now have to fall again and again on a few volunteers?
“He [Gates] said it did not affect the Marines, whose standard tour is seven months, nor the Army National Guard or Army Reserve, which will continue to serve 12-month tours.
Gates said the new policy also seeks to ensure that all active-duty Army units get at least 12 months at home between deployments. He said it would allow the Pentagon to maintain the current level of troops in Iraq for another year, although he added that there has been no decision on future troop levels.”
FOXnews.com
There are lots of anti-keyboard commando’s round here. It’s because their situation is always worse than yours has ever been. ;)
Easily said by one probably not in the arena.
We need to reinstate the draft. 2 reasons:
1. America was better (in a number of different ways) when most young men served their country, and we always had enough troops for whatever arose.
2. The Middle East. All of it, and everything about it. It will never succumb to freedom and democracy as we know it, nor will the shia-sunni enmity fade away.....I don’t give a rip about democracy/freedom for muslims because they are incapable of it..........the other certainties islam and muzlims have brought to the fore require severe action now, to avoid the nuclear action sought by what at the moment is passed off as uniquely as Iranian aspirations, completely forgetting what has been called “the islamic bomb(s)” already owned and in missile/other deployabilities by our “ally” Pakistan.
Let’s quit kidding ourselves......
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