Casey: "army is 'out of balance' after six years of warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq..."

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Army needs three to four years to recover from Iraq strains: chief

Mon Oct 8, 4:26 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Army will need three or four years to recover from the strains of repeated deployments to Iraq even with a planned drawdown of US forces next year, the service's chief said Monday.

General George Casey said the army is "out of balance" after six years of warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq, and facing unpredictable demands in an era of "persistent conflict."

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"We know where we need to go and it's going to take three or four years and a substantial amount of resources to put ourselves back in balance," he told reporters at an annual army conference.

Strains on the army intensified earlier this year when President George W. Bush decided to buildup US force levels in Iraq as part of an effort to bring spiraling sectarian violence under control.

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