National Guard, Reserve See Duty Extended

[newyawker99]

Like active duty troops held longer than expected in Iraq, National Guard and reservists also are having their tours of duty extended, defense officials said Tuesday.

With the Army stretched thin by the Iraq campaign, the global war on terror and other duty around the world, officials ordered that Guard and Army Reserve troops now in Iraq and surrounding countries serve 12-month tours.

The new order, signed Friday night and not publicly announced, covers some 20,000 people and means some of them will remain months longer than they thought they would, officials said.

There are 130,000 Americans - including active duty - inside Iraq and more than 40,000 more in Kuwait, Qatar and so on.


extended duty

[Voltaire99]

1. How to sell a pull-out from Iraq (and win the election in the bargain)

The betrayal of these troops by Bush is both a moral catastrophe and one of the best opportunities for Democrats since the end of WWII. It might now be possible to drive a wedge between the military and the GOP.

But it can't be done by foolishly campaigning as a watered-down hawk, claiming the war was ill-advised without a bigger coalition but that now we're stuck in Iraq until "democracy" is established. That's only shining Bush's shoes for him since it essentially acknowledges that the war was right, while making a futile play for the suburban vote (as in Chevy Suburban, naturally). And it leaves progressives thinking, correctly, that you're just DLC-lite.

Nope: hammer Bush, hammer the Iraq policy, promise to bring the troops home and leave self-determination to the Iraqis. Politicize this war. And not just for tactics. Because--and this is an idea that, in the era of the DLC, the Democratic Party doesn't readily understand--because it's the right thing to do. (Corollary: the Democrats' meekly handing Bush carte blanche on Iraq was the wrong thing to do.)

Counting on the economy not to rebound is a pretty pathetic electoral strategy; it's defeatist, and what if the economy turns around? If the Dems are going to win in 2004 they need better narratives than what's on offer right now (Kucinich is the great exception), and a good place to start is the obvious: this corrupt war, these betrayed troops.

[lebkuchen]

2. What's it to Bush.

He thinks avant-garde is a French football team. He'll be deploying them any day now.

[Wetzelbill]

3. Nothing like a coward who goes awol

when it was his chance to fight then spends the rest of his life disrespecting the people who have the guts to do what his pansy ass never could.

[saigon68]

4. PANSY ASS--

And to think we have called him and an AWOL-CHIMPANZEE, SHRUB, a BOOTLICK and other assorted names--

A Pansy Ass also has a nice ring to it.

[Name removed]

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