Iraqi Troops' Short Baghdad Tours Faulted

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Washington Post

As the U.S. military sends more troops into Baghdad for stays of 15 months or longer, some Iraqi army soldiers participating in the same counterinsurgency operation are serving under a rotation schedule officially lasting just three months, according to senior officers at the Pentagon and Multi-National Force-Iraq.

Some military experts have said that the 90-day Iraqi army tours of duty are not long enough for the units to provide adequate help in the Baghdad buildup operation. The practice also complicates the task of ensuring that enough experienced Iraqi units will be available to replace U.S. brigades in the capital as they are drawn down. U.S. officials say that the Iraqi units involved in the operation are not fully staffed, a problem found throughout the Iraqi army.

Brig. Gen. Michael Jones, deputy director for politico-military affairs for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a House Armed Services subcommittee last week that a shortage of experienced Iraqi units in Baghdad that can eventually replace U.S. troops is "one of the reasons they're relooking at their force structure . . . and whether or not the current programmed force is going to be adequate for their needs in order to allow us to withdraw."

Although the tours of some of the Iraqi units brought to Baghdad from elsewhere in the country have been extended, the first Iraqi troop rotation from the capital was completed in March and a second will be completed by mid-June, when the last of two new battalions scheduled to come to Baghdad have completed a 10-day training program, according to Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman. Preparations are underway within the Iraqi army for a third rotation, he added.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/01/AR2007060102080.html?hpid=topnews

[thunder rising]

1. Short tours??? Like, don't they live there?

Of course it's required that they take turns being on the target side of the insurgency. It's in the contract; spend 3 months with the Americans and get an RR shooting at the Americans for 6 .

[grytpype]

2. The Iraqis do 90 days close to home while our troops do 18 months on the other side of the Earth!!!!

Outrage!!!!!!