it takes 18 mos. to move 30,000 troops? i say wtf.

[mopinko]

this "surge" is supposed to be super fast and all, but they say this is the norm. is it just me, or does this seem just outrageous? strikes me maybe these guys have too f'ing much stuff. do they use all that stuff? does it all work?
didn't we move 100,000 troops into kuwait in 6 months?
isn't this part of why this whole thing is gonna take so long?

this shit must be gotten under control somehow. (to say nothing of the blackwater/cia/god-knows-who-else government unto itself.)

[atreides1]

1. Theory

Some of that 30,000 will be coming from units that are already in rotation and currently on down time before re-deploying back to Afghanistan.

That would be the main reason as to why it'll take 18 months.

lLike I said it's just a theory.

[backscatter712]

4. In other words, Obama's putting an end to the stop-lossing and never-ending deployments from hell.

He's actually making sure our military isn't getting run into the ground.

[bigtree]

2. studies before the announcement

showed that we only have about 11,000 to 14,000 ready troops. They have to wean some out of Iraq.

[NightWatcher]

3. the good news. By the time they all get into the area, spend a week in country, it's time to return

By the time we all get them in country it should be near July 2011. So they'll unpack visit the mess and then pack up and get out.

Kewlness

“As I suggested, we will have a thorough review after December 2010, then we will take a hard-look at the strategy itself,” Gates said, saying there was no deadline on when the withdrawal would end.


And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “I don’t believe we have locked ourselves into leaving” in July 2011, but that the timeframe was set based on “the best assessment of our military experts.”


The comments came hours after Obama delivered a nationally televised address saying that an additional 30,000 troops will be sent to the war next month – but that troops would be withdrawn by July 2011.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30103.html

[Kokonoe]

5. But a commuter plane probably holds 55 passengers.

With 1 flight per day, it is possible to add 30,000 if the propellers keep sturdy.

The key would be for nobody else to come back home.

[mopinko]

6. i'm thinking maybe this could be the one thing that ought to be privatized.

call fedex. how much worse/more expensive could it be?

[Winterblues]

7. I remember when the USSR shocked America with it's take over of Chechoslakia (sp)

In a forty eight hour period they moved in a hundred thousand troops without any communications that we were able to pick up. It shocked our military to their very core.