Gates To Send Troops To Afghanistan, Not Iraq

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
ArmyTimes.com
September 11, 2008
By Michelle Tan, Staff writer
CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait — Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed off on orders that will send the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division to Afghanistan instead of Iraq early next year, Army sources said.
President Bush announced Tuesday that U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan will rise beginning in November with the deployment of a Marine battalion, to be followed by an Army brigade combat team in January. Those units had been slated for deployment to Iraq. They will not be replaced, contributing to a drawdown of some 8,000 troops by February.
Gates told the House Armed Services Committee today that about 3,400 noncombat forces will begin coming home from Iraq this month, with a Marine battalion returning in November and another Army brigade combat team back by early February.
The noncombat forces include aviation personnel, explosive ordnance disposal teams, combat and construction engineers, military police and logistics support teams, he said.
The Army sources said no detailed plans had yet been developed for other cuts and Gen. David Petreaus, top commander in Iraq, who is to assume duties Sept. 16 as head of U.S. Central Command, has requested a pause in any further force reductions in Iraq.
 
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