BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended

Subject: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: GUEST,282RA
Date: 11 Apr 07 - 11:44 PM

WASHINGTON - Stretched thin by four years of war, the Army is adding three months to the standard yearlong tour for all active-duty soldiers in       Iraq and       Afghanistan, an extraordinary step aimed at maintaining the troop buildup in Baghdad.

The change, announced Wednesday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, is the latest blow to an all-volunteer Army that has been given ever-shorter periods of rest and retraining at home between overseas deployments.

Rather than continue to shrink the at-home intervals to a point that might compromise soldiers' preparedness for combat, Gates chose to lengthen combat tours to buy time for units newly returned from battle. The longer tours will affect about 100,000 soldiers currently in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus untold thousands more who deploy later. It does not affect the Marine Corps or the National Guard or Reserve.

"Our forces are stretched, there's no question about that," Gates said.

The extended tours are a price the Army must pay to sustain the troop buildup that       President Bush ordered in January as part of his rejiggered strategy for stabilizing Baghdad and averting a U.S. defeat. Troop levels are being boosted from 15 brigades to 20 brigades, and in order to keep that up beyond summer the Army faced harsh choices: Either send units to Iraq with less than 12 months at home, or extend tours.

[snip]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070411/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraq_us_troops

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: Peace
Date: 11 Apr 07 - 11:47 PM

Any chance Bush wants them out of the country so he can effect a coup in the USA?

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: artbrooks
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 12:02 AM

No

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: Peace
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 12:22 AM

OK. Any chance you'd say why?

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: GUEST,albert
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 04:06 AM

The US military is facing a massive defeat in Iraq and its soldiers are going to increasingly become unwilling to obey orders to patrol the roads and highways because of the threat of roadside bombs etc.
Thousands of US military vehicles are in huge depots awaiting repairs for damage inflicted by these bombs and rocket propelled grenades etc.The cost to life and limb has been catastrophic.....
albert

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:00 AM

I learned yesterday that when the local NG unit left Iraq they were ordered to leave ALL equipment, including small arms, there. They would be resupplied in the States.

It was literally months before they were even reissued rifles. They still don't have the artillery they need as a field arty unit.

I heard on the radio this morning that the Guard and Reserves are losing their NCOs and experienced personnel -- they're not re-upping, and some are getting close to "having their 20" in.

And our local unit is getting ready to another deployment within a year or so. This will be their third.

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: 282RA
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:30 AM

I hope Americans understand that this is a serious problem and that harsh decisions have to be made here.

A draft is inevitable, I think. When it will happen is open to debate but they need to get new blood in there and fast.

I'm told the American people won't accept a draft but they will. They won't like it but they'll accept it.

All I can say is if you don't want to go to war, don't vote for a sonofabitch who starts them.

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:41 AM

Most of us didn't.

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:45 AM

They actually used a word like "rejiggered?" Never heard that one before.

Americans will not accept a draft.

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:53 AM

If there is an attempt to re-instate the draft I beleive there will be protests in the street a la the Vietnam era.

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: Peace
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:54 AM

So, should Canada expect an influx of young folks from the USA?

The damned Democratic House and Senate don't seem to be much of a stop to Bush.

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:54 AM

I meant 'believe', of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 09:57 AM

"The damned Democratic House and Senate don't seem to be much of a stop to Bush."

I think they are trying but he is still the commander in chief. There is a limit to what they can do practically and politically.

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: 282RA
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 10:09 AM

I'll bet anything that we'll pull out and then start a peacetime draft. We have to get more people. This is a serious situation.

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: artbrooks
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 01:49 PM

A peacetime draft is a good idea - as long as it is truly universal and we use the man(kind)power thus generated for multiple purposes...i.e., Job Corps, CCC, Teacher Corps., etc., as well as the military. The Vietnam experience proved that the draft is a disaster as a means to fill up a military that's fighting an unpopular war.

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: dianavan
Date: 12 Apr 07 - 02:47 PM

Bush is a monster. He's going to send an exhausted and under-equipped military to fight his battle so that the Democrats will have no choice but to fund them or be accused of their slaughter.

Subject: RE: BS: Army Tours in Iraq Extended
From: Peace
Date: 13 Apr 07 - 10:14 AM

"The Vietnam experience proved that the draft is a disaster as a means to fill up a military that's fighting an unpopular war. "

If the government didn't learn from the Vietnam war, why do you think they'd learn from a draft then that didn't work?