DOD ANNOUNCES TROOP ROTATION IN IRAQ- THE OCCUPATION GRINDS ON

[Orwellian_Ghost]

DoD Announces Upcoming Operation Iraqi Freedom Rotation

The Department of Defense announced today additional major units scheduled to deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The announcement involves three division headquarters and eight brigade combat teams consisting of approximately 30,000 personnel. These units will replace redeploying units, with no increase in overall force levels. The deployment window for these units will begin in the fall and continue into early 2010.


Specific units receiving deployment orders include:

Headquarters units:

3rd Infantry Division Headquarters, Ft. Stewart, Ga.

1st Infantry Division Headquarters, Ft. Riley, Kan.

1st Armored Division Headquarters, Wiesbaden, Germany


Brigade combat teams:

1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Ft. Bliss, Texas

1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Ft. Drum, N.Y.

2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Ft. Drum, N.Y.


Advisory and assistance brigades:

3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Ft. Benning, Ga.

2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Ft. Stewart, Ga.

1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Ft. Stewart, Ga.

3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Ft. Carson, Colo.

Security force brigade:

53rd Brigade Combat Team, Florida Army National Guard


This announcement reflects the continued commitment of the United States to the security of the Iraqi people, and provides replacement forces required to maintain the current level of effort in Iraq. Subsequent deployment orders will be issued based on force level decisions made in the future.

The deployed headquarters units will provide command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in support of security operations in the country.

Three brigade combat teams will replace formations currently on the ground in Iraq. These units will conduct full-spectrum and stability operations from outside Iraq’s cities in partnership with Iraqi security forces.

<snip>

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12816

[mike_c]

1. more of the same....

U.S. out of Iraq NOW!

[lindisfarne]

4. Not happening. But Obama is on track to get troops out. n/t

[TBF]

7. There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

Is this the train you were referring to?

Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted
Can't help but wonder what's happenin' to my companions,
Are they lost or are they found, have they counted the cost it'll take to bring
down
All their earthly principles they're gonna have to abandon?
There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

I had a woman down in Alabama,
She was a backwoods girl, but she sure was realistic,
She said, "Boy, without a doubt, have to quit your mess and straighten out,
You could die down here, be just another accident statistic."
There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

All that foreign oil controlling American soil,
Look around you, it's just bound to make you embarrassed.
Sheiks walkin' around like kings, wearing fancy jewels and nose rings,
Deciding America's future from Amsterdam and to Paris
And there's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

Man's ego is inflated, his laws are outdated, they don't apply no more,
You can't rely no more to be standin' around waitin'
In the home of the brave, Jefferson turnin' over in his grave,
Fools glorifying themselves, trying to manipulate Satan
And there's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

Big-time negotiators, false healers and woman haters,
Masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition
But the enemy I see wears a cloak of decency,
All non-believers and men stealers talkin' in the name of religion
And there's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

People starving and thirsting, grain elevators are bursting
Oh, you know it costs more to store the food than it do to give it.
They say lose your inhibitions, follow your own ambitions,
They talk about a life of brotherly love, show me someone who knows how to
live it. There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

Well, my baby went to Illinois with some bad-talkin' boy she could destroy
A real suicide case, but there was nothin' I could do to stop it,
I don't care about economy, I don't care about astronomy
But it sure do bother me to see my loved ones turning into puppets,
There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

[prostomulgus]

2. Why can't we just get out?

Just tell the troops to drop their guns & backpacks & whatever, proceed directly to the nearest airport and GTF out of there! Leave all the crap behind (we don't need it here) and the troops can ALL be out in 24 hrs. What are we waiting for?

So what if Iraq falls apart. We weren't the ones that decided to go in there, the repukes were. It isn't our problem.

Just get 'em all out NOW!

[proteus_lives]

6. Are you 15 years old?

Seriously. How old are you?

[Mari333]

11. Hon Im almost 60 yrs old and I agree with you

just get the hell out.

[Freddie Stubbs]

14. I don't think that is what the American people want

If it was, they would have elected someone who advocated that.

[twop]

15. A military operation is not a video game

[timeforpeace]

3. There are many (a majority) on DU who claim this and Afghanistan and Pakistan were all part of

"The Plan" when they voted for Obama. Thus they don't criticize him now for expanding wars. I missed hearing about this plan in the runup to the election.

[anigbrowl]

5. Then you must not have been paying attention

Obama made it abundantly clear before the election that his target for withdrawal from Iraq was about 16 months after taking office, while he intended to step up action in Afghanistan and believed the bush administration had made a strategic blunder by breaking off pursuit of bin Laden (even if that only results in confirmation of his death).

Agree or not, if you didn't know this it's your own responsibility, not his. I do happen to agree, which is why I picked Obama as my preferred candidate in August 2007. I understand that many people don't or can't subscribe to this point of view. But to say you missed hearing about it just baffles me. If you were that out of touch, I hope you didn't vote - seriously. You are doing yourself a disservice if you cast a vote an important office without knowing the basics about a candidate.

[mike_c]

8. so that's what you supported? 16 more months of useless war...

...that should never have even begun? Why do you favor remaining 16 more months rather than withdrawing sooner?

You understand that's the corollary of the "you weren't paying attention" argument, don't you? Since you WERE paying attention, we can presume that (if you voted for Obama) you must support that "plan." Why?

Fair disclosure-- I was paying attention, too. That's why I didn't vote for Obama. I voted for a candidate whose platform included immediate withdrawal.

[anigbrowl]

9. I don't consider it useless

You're welcome to google my past DU comments on the subject. In brief, I think we have a strategic interest in de-escalating the Iraq conflict rather than simply hopping back over the border with Kuwait and creating a power vacuum, and I believe we have legitimate interests in pacifying Afghanistan. I don't expect you to agree with this point of view, but there it is.

I can easily understand why someone might disagree with this view. What I don't understand is why someone would claim to be unaware that it was going to be policy of the incoming administration.

[HughMoran]

12. Not surprised

You don't seem to pay much attention to anything.

[Freddie Stubbs]

16. One would have to be a true "Low Information Voter" to be unaware of Obama's plan for Afghanistan

Unfortunately, some people only hear what they want to hear and fill in the blanks with their own desires.

[Mari333]

10. my oldest son gets out of the guard in Jan

I will be so glad when he does. he wont have a job, he has a new baby, its going to be tough as hell, but I would rather have him alive and here then in the military . he has applied for 40 different jobs in Michigan, not a call back from anyone.
but he will at least be safe and not deployed to these empirical quagmires.

[BeHereNow]

13. Thank goodness Mari.

My nephew and his wife got out a few years ago-
Both said they would rather shoot themselves in the leg
than go back to the most FUBAR war in history.
BHN