Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
April 9, 2008
Pg. 5
Missions will be cut by 3 months
By Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today
WASHINGTON — U.S. forces are under "considerable" stress from repeated and lengthy combat missions to Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus said Tuesday. But that won't change his plan to postpone a decision to withdraw more troops after reductions already underway are complete in July.
The last of the 30,000 additional servicemembers deployed in Iraq last year are scheduled to come home in July. Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that commanders will then take 45 days to see how that withdrawal affects security.
That will leave 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Keeping troop strength at that level will make it difficult to give troops more than 12 months at home between missions. The Pentagon plans to cut tours from 15 months to 12 months this summer.
Keeping 140,000 servicemembers in Iraq is "unsustainable," Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., told Petraeus. Biden chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker addressed Tuesday afternoon.
Military commanders in Washington have expressed concern that supplying soldiers for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is wearing out the Army. Gen. Richard Cody, Army vice chief of staff, told Congress last week that those assignments had put the Army "out of balance." The shortage of available combat units means it will take the Army more than a year to guarantee those units 18 months of rest time at home between missions once the 30,000 servicemembers return home, Cody said.
What the Army really needs, Cody said, is for troops to spend 24 months at home for every 12 months they spend in combat.
These concerns should be taken seriously, said Andrew Bacevich, an international relations professor at Boston University. "They're raising that issue because they're seriously concerned about the damage being done to the institution of the Army and Marine Corps," he said.
James Carafano, a military analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the solution is to build a larger military, not back away from Iraq. The Army is adding 65,000 soldiers.
"You can't just stop what you're doing and ask for a time out," he said.
Petraeus said morale is good and pointed to the Army's 3rd Infantry Division's success in re-enlisting soldiers.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the division commander, said in a recent interview that repeated tours of duty were tough but that re-enlistment goals were hit six months ahead of schedule.
April 9, 2008
Pg. 5
Missions will be cut by 3 months
By Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today
WASHINGTON — U.S. forces are under "considerable" stress from repeated and lengthy combat missions to Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus said Tuesday. But that won't change his plan to postpone a decision to withdraw more troops after reductions already underway are complete in July.
The last of the 30,000 additional servicemembers deployed in Iraq last year are scheduled to come home in July. Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that commanders will then take 45 days to see how that withdrawal affects security.
That will leave 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Keeping troop strength at that level will make it difficult to give troops more than 12 months at home between missions. The Pentagon plans to cut tours from 15 months to 12 months this summer.
Keeping 140,000 servicemembers in Iraq is "unsustainable," Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., told Petraeus. Biden chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker addressed Tuesday afternoon.
Military commanders in Washington have expressed concern that supplying soldiers for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is wearing out the Army. Gen. Richard Cody, Army vice chief of staff, told Congress last week that those assignments had put the Army "out of balance." The shortage of available combat units means it will take the Army more than a year to guarantee those units 18 months of rest time at home between missions once the 30,000 servicemembers return home, Cody said.
What the Army really needs, Cody said, is for troops to spend 24 months at home for every 12 months they spend in combat.
These concerns should be taken seriously, said Andrew Bacevich, an international relations professor at Boston University. "They're raising that issue because they're seriously concerned about the damage being done to the institution of the Army and Marine Corps," he said.
James Carafano, a military analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the solution is to build a larger military, not back away from Iraq. The Army is adding 65,000 soldiers.
"You can't just stop what you're doing and ask for a time out," he said.
Petraeus said morale is good and pointed to the Army's 3rd Infantry Division's success in re-enlisting soldiers.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the division commander, said in a recent interview that repeated tours of duty were tough but that re-enlistment goals were hit six months ahead of schedule.