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John Kerry’s 80 Day Cook’s Tour August 24th, 2004 The proper duration of individual front line troop deployments in wartime has been debated since the Revolutionary War without any clear conclusion. Our nation’s first Commander-In-Chief frequently despaired over perilously anemic troop strengths as enlistment contracts expired. Sometimes, battle plans were hastily drawn up and launched just in time before waves of militiamen and continentals were to shoulder their rucksacks and head home. WWII deployments, for all practical purposes, were for the duration. US Army troops, Marines and sailors posted virtually anywhere, but especially on the line, could look forward to...

MR. BREMER: Good afternoon. I have a few remarks I'd like to make before taking your questions. We are in the middle of the largest troop rotation since the Second World War. Over 100,000 American troops will depart Iraq and be replaced by their compatriots. Many coalition partners have carried on or will be carrying out similar rotations. Before those completing their service depart, I want to speak directly to the men and women from around the world making up the coalition forces. After months of arduous, dangerous and uncomfortable duty, many of you are being relieved now by your...

Military officials detailed to the House Armed Services Committee just how the troop rotation plan for Iraq will work. At the heart of the matter is how the military takes troops that are in contact with the enemy and replaces them with fresh forces. The troops leaving must give information to those replacing them so there is continuity of mission. Air Force Lt. Gen. Norton Schwartz, the director of operations with the Joint Staff, briefed the congressmen today. The current set-up in Iraq consists of four Army divisions and supporting forces -- the 82nd Airborne Division, the 1st Armored Division,...

<p>The military has begun a rotation of forces in Iraq and Afghanistan that amounts to the largest movement of American troops in decades, Army officials said Thursday.</p> <p>The changes present an enormous logistics challenge not only for the Army and Marine Corps, but also for the Air Force and Navy, whose planes and ships are ferrying the troops to and from Iraq.</p>

US weapons team ends its search with no discovery By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 12 May 2003 The team searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is ending its operation without having found proof that Saddam Hussein had stocks of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. It investigated numerous sites identified by US intelligence as those likely to harbour weapons of mass destruction (WMD) but has now all but accepted that it is unlikely to find any weapons. Operations are being wound up and a scaled-down unit called the Iraq Survey Group will take over. The leader of the US...