US sending 300 newly returned troops back to Iraq

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14437695.htm

WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - About 300 U.S. soldiers who just weeks ago returned home to Alaska after a year in Iraq are being ordered back to try to help bolster security in Baghdad, the U.S. Army said on Monday.

The soldiers are part of the 3,900-strong 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Wainwright in Alaska. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on July 27 ordered the unit to remain in Iraq for up to four months past its scheduled departure.

The order provoked anger and disappointment among some of the soldiers' families in Alaska. It also made clear that any significant reduction in the 135,000-strong U.S. force in Iraq was unlikely in the immediate future.

[villager]

1. when do the rebellions in the ranks break out?

n/t

[arcane1]

4. and when would we hear about it? n/t

[villager]

5. good point...

n/t

[Aviation Pro]

6. They won't...

...our soldiers are disciplined and well trained and rarely go AWOL. Unlike Little Monkey and Five Deferment Dick.

[villager]

8. you're probably right, but this seems unprecedented, running

them to exhaustion, in a "cause" that more and more people are realizing is just a Bush family hit...

[KansDem]

29. That's really what this is, isn't it?

Bush family hit

I think this phrase sums it all up...

[arcane1]

9. 8,000 desert during Iraq war

By Bill Nichols, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — At least 8,000 members of the all-volunteer U.S. military have deserted since the Iraq war began, Pentagon records show, although the overall desertion rate has plunged since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

Since fall 2003, 4,387 Army soldiers, 3,454 Navy sailors and 82 Air Force personnel have deserted. The Marine Corps does not track the number of desertions each year but listed 1,455 Marines in desertion status last September, the end of fiscal 2005, says Capt. Jay Delarosa, a Marine Corps spokesman.

-snip-


http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-03-07-deserters_x.htm

[BrotherBuzz]

11. 40,000 US Troops Have Deserted Since 2000....

and our soldiers are disciplined and well trained and rarely go AWOL? :shrug:

Since 2000, about 40,000 troops from all branches of the military have deserted, the Pentagon says. More than half served in the Army. But the Army says numbers have decreased each year since the United States began its war on terror in Afghanistan.

http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1930387.php

[Aviation Pro]

21. Sorry, I can't believe those numbers.....

...and I don't know what the reporting criteria are. According to the article, half of the 40K are soldiers, which would amount to a division (20K). That number is astounding - and hence subject to my health dose of skepticism - because of the draw down since the 90s.

An army simply cannot lose a division and remain viable.

[ryanmuegge]

28. I know I'd be trying to escape every way I could...

Just sayin'.

[democrank]

2. This makes me want to cry.

Seriously. It`s just too much.

[wakeme2008]

3. What happened to the 18 month rule...

Oh well...

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. What ever happened to the 13th Amendment?

Seriously, at what point does this become involuntary servitude?

[leveymg]

10. Anybody have a source for US force disposition inside Iraq?

Are there any public sources for what part of Iran (N/Central/S) where units are based?

Also, does anyone else sense that there's a darkening news blackout from Iraq?

[grytpype]

12. Running out of troops.

We don't have a big enough Army to maintain even the inadequate forces we have over there.

If we were going to invade Iraq and win, we needed to at least triple the size of the Army before we even went over there.

And if we are going to start WW3 and win it, we would need an army at least 10 times the size we have.

But President Dick-for-brains doesn't get it.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. It's probably the only reason we haven't invaded the whole ME yet.

We don't have a big enough Army.

[grytpype]

18. Well, that hasn't stopped Cheney yet!

They still want to attack Iran! According to Sy Hersh the Air Force is saying they can beat Iran with a bombing campaign, the Army and Marines are saying wait a damn minute, we're going to get sent in there if you bomb them, and the fight has stopped the momentum toward war with Iran.

[krkaufman]

32. Thank dog for the Marines and Army leadership coming to the senses, then.

[PATRICK]

15. What I don't get

Is that if our troops are deployed, tied down and strung out, what happens in the event of an Iranian attack while our planes are busy wasting their civilians?

Are they there as a tempting target, a pretext for the widening of the war? They certainly can't pack up and invade Iran or do much except defend themselves. I can imagine the Shiite uprising as well, one reason for their recent(unheralded in the MSM) bombing of Sadr's stronghold at the time of the protest march.

And, btw, in what shape exactly is our Air Force and is the necessary work being done to conduct a criminal air campaign?

I believe they stopped the Lebanese action simply because they wanted to save material. If it was an experiment it wasn't too good a result, but that won't stop the chickenhawk gods.

[krkaufman]

31. Yes, assuming they were interested in ...

... having the right force strength out of the gate, or were interested in "winning" anything. Perpetual war is more suitable to their pocketbooks.

[Barrett808]

13. Army recalling 300 troops to Iraq (from Alaska)

Army recalling 300 troops to Iraq
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - About 300 Alaska-based soldiers sent home from Iraq just before their unit's deployment was extended last month must now go back, the Army said Monday, setting up a wrenching departure for troops and families who thought their service there was finished.

The soldiers — all from the 172nd Stryker Brigade — are among the 380 troops who had gotten home to Fort Wainwright when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered the unit to serve four more months. The remaining 80 will not have to return to Iraq.

Army officials have sent a team of personnel and pay experts to Alaska to help sort out all of the soldiers' vacations, school enrollments and other plans torn apart by the decision to return them to Iraq. The unit is now being stationed in Baghdad, one of the most violent parts of the country.

Lt. Col. Wayne Shanks, a service spokesman, said the Army fully realizes the hardships triggered by the move and is "bending over backward to accommodate" the families.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060814/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_troops

[cgrindley]

16. It's worse than a draft

The British Army, way back when, did studies on combat stress, and came up with the maximum length that a soldier should remain in the field. I believe that it's 9 months max. I tells ya, the US army is flirting with causing even worse human rights abuses when these poor soldiers start to snap, not to mention desertions and so on. There are guys out there who have done 3 or 4 tours. This isn't what the recruiter promised them when they signed up to earn some money for college.

[AnneD]

30. This Admin has gutted the Reserves...

put all the lipstick you have on that pig-but the Reserves are just about dead. The only folks that will go in are those wanting a quick road to citizenship. The standards are so low you can measure them with a ruler. The Regular Branches are also having a time recruiting. They are rapidly reaching critical mass. The Bush admin will have to retreat or draft. They might pull a skills draft to buy some time-but they have killed our nation's Reserve system. It just makes me sick.

[Az_lefty]

17. they stayed 16 monthes and are returning again?

this is just insane. No way these soldiers are going to be retained past their current enlistment.

[RamboLiberal]

19. Bummer for these guys - those who can are leaving

at least in the 173rd Airborne. Interesting story in Stars and Stripes.

The 173rd Airborne Brigade, fresh off a yearlong stint in Afghanistan — and a similar tour in Iraq that ended in 2004 — is in the process of training hundreds of troops to be “Sky Soldiers.”

Hundreds of soldiers served in both of those missions with the 173rd, making the brigade one of the most combat-experienced in the Army.

But hundreds of recent departures have changed that.

While Army units always see some changeover, the 173rd has been hit harder than usual for many reasons, including the end of prolonged tours made necessary by the two missions in Southwest Asia.

Some units in the brigade have seen more than two-thirds of their soldiers go elsewhere or leave the military.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?article=39310§ion=104

Wonder how the military will vote in '06 and '08 cause they've sure been used and abused by the Repukes.

[MasonJar]

20. That is so unfair. It is breaking our poor troops. A friend of mine

has a brother who is career military and the POS (excuse me) DoD sent his platoon back in a few weeks. He didn't have to go because he had a new job, but he told her he did NOT know how he could have gone back....mentally or physically.

[gademocrat7]

22. This blatant abuse of the military.

But I'm sure shrub and crash-cart don't think twice about the well being of our the troops. They are cowardly chickenhawks.

[ConcernedCanuk]

26. Da Mafia used local police to do their dirty work - PNACers learned - -

.
.
.

Da BFEE is your new Mafia

Your Military is doing the PNACers' and BFEE's dirty work

Welcome to the fruits of the Project for the New American Century

Disgrace, Distrust and Hatred

and unfortunately,

well deserved

(and I used to like the USA so much 3 decades ago . . . )

(sigh)

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

23. One of my friends is in that brigrade.

He was due home in a few weeks, but his tour was extended until at least January he was told. This is his second tour over there in what he always knew to be a pointless and illegal war. No one should have to face this much combat time.

[Karenina]

24. There is strength in numbers

and at some point those who are putting their lives on the line for PNAC, Halliburton, KB&R will need to grow the eggs to say "HELL NO, WE WON'T GO" or be sent like lambs to the slaughter.

[ninkasi]

25. This is unconscionable

Those troops are exhausted, and are being ordered to go back to a war which has gone completely out of control. Compare the way Bush callously treats them, compared to all of the lavish rewards he showers his base with. These are men and women who have served their country, and need time to rest, to be with their families, and to pick up what they can of being back safely.

Human beings can only absorb so much abuse before they crack up under the stress. The way our troops are being treated points out, very clearly, how little our lives are worth to the ones who control this country. Our lives, our health, our well-being, and our happiness means zilch, nothing, nada to them. If these troops are killed, or maimed, or suffer terrible emotional problems the rest of their lives, the powers that be don't care. The ones serving this country are not among the haves and have mores, who constitute Bush's base.

I suggest that the ones who reap lavish rewards from this war are the ones who should be fighting it. Leave the rest of us alone, and let us try to regain some stability and happiness in our lives. With our jobs disappearing, our ability to pay medical expenses more and more at risk, do not ask us to also fight and die for Bush and his cronies.

[Roland99]

27. 300 more troops who are "adapting to win"!!!!

:banghead: