Army May Cut Iraq Tours In Half

[trogdor]

From the Moonie-owned UPI:

WASHINGTON - The Army is considering cutting the length of deployments in Iraq from more than 12 months to as low as six months if conditions allow, a top official said Thursday.

If a frog had wings...

Decreasing the tour length of soldiers from about 15 months -- 12 months "boots on the ground" in Iraq plus time on either end for training and reorganizing at home base, would improve morale, help families and help attract new recruits, said Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, the Army deputy chief of staff for personnel.

Translation: Good news! Instead of going to Iraq for a year, you're going on a six month tour in June, and another six month tour next February.

So the Army wants to reduce tour length in Iraq from 12 months "boots on the ground" to 6. Big fat hairy camouflage-covered deal. That pretty much guarantees that everyone will get to go on multiple deployments to Iraq during their terms of service. This is supposed to help recruiting how?

Nowhere does Gen. Hagenbeck suggest that a soldier's probability of going to Iraq, or that the net amount of participation he or she could expect might actually decrease. It is also unclear whether people will stop getting extended; reducing tours from 12 months to 6 does exactly nothing to prevent that from happening.

About the only thing this would accomplish is to give the Air Force more to do, ferrying these poor bastards to and from Iraq with greater frequency. I guess by "if conditions allow," Gen. Hagenbeck means "if there is money in the budget and available pilots for double the current number of AMC flights."

Your thoughts?

[AllegroRondo]

1. "If condiditons allow" is Army speak for "not gonna happen"

[trogdor]

2. Well...

...I already knew that. This is the second "if conditions allow" news release I have seen in the past couple of weeks. I guess they feel they have to put out something that sounds sort of like good news every so often for the proles, even if it is salted with weasel phrases.

[AllegroRondo]

10. But I hear the chocolate ration is increasing

[lebkuchen]

12. Who is going to replace the units on their second tour?

A gaggle of geese?

[MuseRider]

3. This does not seem

to match up with other reports we have had recently about the conditions over there. If it was me I would be happier if the tours were shorter but they will send these poor people over there many times and I doubt that it mentions just how many times. "If conditions allow"? Sure. "If there is money in the budget?" Sure.

[Karenina]

4. How very white of them...

:eyes:

[Az_lefty]

5. Bullshit !!!!!

My son in-law's over there and his 12 month tour just got extended to 18 months. Fucking liars!

[billyoc]

13. Precisely the way this double talk works.

He's merely starting his 3rd 6 month tour. :mad:

[Debau2005]

6. *sigh*

As the fiancee of a soldier that is currently deployed, I no longer buy anything the military spews out! Neither does he. He was pulled off the IRR list (back door draft) and shipped out with in a few weeks of getting notified. Luckily for us, the military is not always overly smart. He was sent to Honduras, because of a Spanish class he took while on Active Duty in the mid-90's. So, for now, I don't have to worry about him getting shot or blown up. However, I KNOW that once this deployment ends another one will begin. Now that they have him, I doubt they will let him go!!!

"edited for spelling"

[MichiganVote]

7. Welcome to DU Debau2005

[BrotherBuzz]

8. "if conditions allow"..sure, as soon as they find 87,000 more troops

[0007]

9. Sounds like propaganda to get junior's poll numbers back up

[leftofcool]

11. Can you spell LIAR? eom

[TahitiNut]

14. Three consecutive "deployments" would equal 18 months.

They're not limiting troops to a single tou now, so what difference does it make other than to benefit the junior officers? The dirty little secret is that O-1 through O-6 don't have anything close to the number of repeated tours that grunts experience.

[Voltaire99]

15. Excellent comment, Trogdor

Clearly this is as meaningless and dishonest a promise as can be made--pathetic even by military standards.

The article's discussion of how this sham will play with "influencers" is particularly sickening.