Gates Urges Increase In Army, Marines

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
January 12, 2007
Pg. 14

Defense Chief's Call for 92,000 More Troops Is a Change From Predecessor's Policies
By Ann Scott Tyson and Josh White, Washington Post Staff Writers
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday proposed adding 92,000 troops to the Army and Marine Corps, initiating the biggest increase in U.S. ground forces since the 1960s to shore up a military that top officers warn is on the verge of breaking from prolonged fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The permanent increase of 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 Marines would cost more than $10 billion annually and take five years to achieve, underscoring the Pentagon's conviction that today's wars and anti-terrorism operations will endure for many years. "We call those 'long war' forces," a senior military official said.
The growth also reflects mounting concern among Army leaders over a deepening readiness crisis, as repeated war-zone rotations have worn out troops and equipment, leaving two-thirds of Army combat units in the United States unprepared to deploy. The active-duty Army would increase to 547,000 troops and the Marine Corps to 202,000.
"It will take some time for these new troops to become available for deployment, but it is important that our men and women in uniform know that additional manpower and resources are on the way," Gates told a packed House Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday. Lawmakers have expressed bipartisan support for permanent growth of the military over the past few years and applauded the proposal.
Gates also announced a politically sensitive policy change to allow the remobilization of National Guard and reserve units, in which thousands of reservists who have already served in Iraq could be involuntarily called up for another tour. The major changes -- both sharp reversals from the direction taken by former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld -- show that Gates is moving on issues that had festered for years at the Pentagon.
Taken together, the decisions mark an acknowledgment of the degree to which the all-volunteer force has been overextended since 2001, despite dire warnings during the 2000 presidential election by Republican candidates George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney that the U.S. military was "overused," "under-resourced" and "in decline."
Yesterday, tens of thousands of soldiers and Marines and their families learned that President Bush's call for additional troops in Iraq means their units will be ordered to stay in Iraq longer than planned, or may leave home early for combat.
To help achieve the surge of 21,500 troops, the Pentagon will extend the service of several units already in Iraq. A Minnesota National Guard Brigade with about 4,000 troops in Iraq will stay an extra four months, until August, and two Marine Corps battalions and a Marine Expeditionary Unit with a total of about 4,000 troops in the country will remain there for two or three extra months, the officials said.
In addition, three Army brigades -- two from the Third Infantry Division at forts Stewart and Benning, Ga., and a Stryker Brigade from Fort Lewis, Wash. -- were placed on orders to deploy to Iraq, and Army officials said they could deploy one to two months earlier than scheduled.
Still, Gates and other senior officials strongly suggested that they could withhold these additional forces if Iraqi leaders do not fulfill their pledges for the surge: to provide nine brigades of Iraqi troops to secure Baghdad and lift restrictions on targeting areas such as Sadr City, as well as some individual extremists.
"The timetable for the introduction of additional U.S. forces will provide ample opportunity early on, and before many of the additional U.S. troops actually arrive in Iraq, to evaluate the progress of this endeavor and whether the Iraqis are fulfilling their commitments to us," Gates said earlier yesterday at a news conference in the Old Executive Office Building.
Both Gates and Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday that the Iraqi government has agreed to lift political restrictions on U.S. operations and that U.S. forces will be allowed to move freely into some areas they have had to avoid. Pace said operations will begin in mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods, with Iraqi forces and U.S. troops working together to clear, hold and build areas throughout Baghdad. A combined U.S. and Iraqi command cell would oversee and coordinate the operations, the senior military official said.
Gates and Pace acknowledged, under sharp questioning from members of Congress, that similar efforts failed because there were not enough troops to hold certain areas, then build them back up.
"The analogy that I've used is that the tide came in and the tide went out, and . . . at the end, you couldn't tell there was a difference," Gates said. "The difference is, this time, to try and get some time under the hold phase for the build to actually take place."
Pace said he is confident the strategy will work, but only if political and economic efforts are pursued in earnest alongside the military approach. He said there initially will be an additional 8,000 Iraqi troops in Baghdad -- bringing the total to 50,000 -- and then 7,000 more U.S. troops in Baghdad, bringing the total to 31,000.
Another 10,500 U.S. troops will be "in the pipeline" to go to Iraq if the strategy looks as if it is working, he said.
Still, other officials expressed uncertainty about whether the Iraqis would come through with the required nine brigades. "We're watching them down to the finite details . . . [such as] how many got on the bus?" the senior military official said.
The permanent troop increase and the recalling of Guard and reserve units will not have an immediate impact on the addition of U.S. ground troops in Iraq, which Gates said yesterday would last only several months. But they would be vital to sustaining an escalation -- or even the regular rotation -- over the long term. By January 2008, National Guard combat brigades are expected to be called up for the rotation to provide relief for active-duty combat brigades, including those involved in the current surge, Gates and other senior officials said.
Under the policy change, National Guard and reserve forces will be called up as units, rather than as individuals, meaning that some reservists who have already served in Iraq or Afghanistan will be remobilized without having the planned five years at home. The duration of the call-ups will be shortened, however, from 18 months to one year.
Both active-duty and reserve personnel will be compensated if required to deploy faster than the usual turnaround time.
The total growth in the Army and Marine Corps would cost more than $10 billion a year for payroll and individual gear alone, according to Army data.
The Army has permanent active-duty personnel -- its congressionally authorized "endstrength" -- of 482,000, but in recent years it was allowed to grow temporarily by 30,000, and this year it expects to reach 512,000. Under Gates's plan, the Army would add 7,000 soldiers a year, to reach a total of 547,000 by 2012.
The Marine Corps has a permanent active-duty "endstrength" of 175,000 and has been allowed to increase temporarily to 180,000. It would grow by 5,000 Marines a year to attain a total of 202,000.
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
 
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