As Iraq Elections Near, Pentagon Extends Tours of Duty for About 6,500

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 - The Pentagon has ordered about 6,500 soldiers in Iraq to extend their tours, the first step the military has taken to increase its combat power there in preparation for the January elections, senior Defense Department officials said Friday.

About 3,500 members of the Second Brigade of the First Cavalry Division will stay in Iraq two months longer than initially ordered, and about 3,000 soldiers assigned to headquarters and support units of the First Infantry Division will have their tours extended by two and a half weeks.


While Pentagon officials and military officers previously had left open the possibility that additional troops would be required to battle a tenacious insurgency ahead of the elections, they had also expressed hopes that new Iraqi security forces or foreign units might fill the need. The decision to extend the stay of American forces in Iraq at a time when replacement troops also are arriving means a significant increase in the overall American combat presence for the first time since the summer.

No other extensions have been approved, and no units now preparing for Iraq duty have been ordered to speed up their departure, according to Pentagon and military official


more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/international/middleeast/30military.html

However, read on...other plans in the works for up to 15,000.

[harpo]

1. those people just have to be ill...how can they support that crap?

[lebkuchen]

2. This part of the article:

In the previous troop rotation this year, 250,000 American soldiers changed places in Iraq in the largest shift of troops since World War II. While successful, the quick pace of the rotation put a huge strain on the military's air and sea transportation system, on temporary deployment bases in Kuwait and on the Iraqi road system. Military officials decided to spread the new round of troop replacements over a longer period, with the bulk arriving and departing between this fall and spring 2005.

That rotation took place between the months of Mar/Apr 2004--Almost 200 Coalition deaths within a 60 day period. And the expense of rotating out all that equipment w/the units? Ooolala!

http://icasualties.org/oif/

[teryang]

3. Stopgap measures to hide manpower crisis

Keeping the number of americans who have to sacrifice and suffer as small as possible before the election.

Fighting a war with a ridiculously small force despite a huge height of Vietnam coldwar level budget. This reserves the most money looted from social security revenues and future taxpayers for the defense contractors.

[wackywill]

4. As this "war" goes on

I would urge our enlisted troops to resist the inclination to frag junior officers. If you are going to participate in that type of activity use some forethought and frag only Field Grade Officers and above. Of course civilian employees of the DOD should be treated in the same manner........ just joking of course.

Seriously, exactly how is JFK II going to change this intolerable situation. The only answer is to declare victory and get out of Iraq as fast as possible.

What would have happened if we had spent the 200 BILLION dollars (we pissed away in Iraq) seeking ways to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels, would we really need Iraq's oil?

[Bossy Monkey]

5. kickaroo n/t