Pentagon extends Army, Marine deployments in Iraq

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Pentagon extends Army, Marine deployments in Iraq
By Katherine McIntire Peters [e-mail] October 9, 2009

Defense Secretary Robert Gates this week approved a request from U.S. combat commanders in Iraq to extend the deployment of some troops serving there by as much as two and a half months.

The extensions are intended to ensure that key capabilities remain in place after the January elections in Iraq. The units affected include the Army's 1st Cavalry Division headquarters and the II Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Texas and North Carolina, respectively. The tours of duty could be extended for an additional 23 days for the Army and 79 days for Marines.

The tour extensions are yet another sign of how pressed military leaders are right now to supply adequate numbers of ground troops for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gates has said he would avoid prolonging tours whenever possible, especially for Army units, where tours typically run 12 months. In the Marine Corps combat tours are generally for seven months. In 2007, to support the troop surge in Iraq, military leaders extended some Army tours to 15 months, putting soldiers and their families under enormous stress.

The announcement of tour extensions coincided with the release of a new report by RAND Corp., a nonprofit research institution, that found the mounting burden of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan is having a negative effect on re-enlistment rates in the Army. For most of the last decade, deployments have had a positive effect on re-enlistment rates.

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http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1009/100909kp1.htm

[Autumn]

1. Damn

that just fucking sucks.

[uppityperson]

2. k&r for exposure

[G_j]

3. nastly flashback

to hear the same sorry story.

[gratuitous]

4. If you're not going to start a draft . . .

And you're not going to get the fuck out of these quagmires, there's really only one thing left to do, and that keep these Risk pieces out on the board for as long as they last. It's too bad these are human beings being played with and not just little wooden or plastic board game pieces. But really, for the beneficiaries of these wars, what's the difference?

[ThomCat]

5. Shit! So now extending people's tours, whether they like it or not,

is yet another Bush policy that Obama is going to emulate. :grr:

This is incredibly dishonest and dishonorable of the military, extending tours beyond when people should have been allowed to go home.

Then combine this with the horror stories we have been hearing about wounded people coming back and being denied healthcare because of being deliberately misclassified. PSTD officially doesn't exist for most of the psychiatrists doing evaluations. Head injuries are somehow pre-existing personality disorders, etc.

I'm getting very sick of hearing about the military abusing our troups. :grr:

I had hoped that Obama was going to reform all this shit, not continue it. But reform doesn't seem to be coming. It all seems to be pretty words, and promises for somewhere far down the road, maybe. :(

[Mari333]

6. what absolute bullshit!!!!

so much for fucking 'change' and 'hope'. this is BUSH policy and no pretty words about Obama can change that.

[jacko_be]

7. this is not possible to win

you can't fight an idea
you can't fight in a place where you don't
know the people, and there ideologies

this starts to look as the vietnam war
they are almost fighting 2000 years
how can you win from them

[Orsino]

8. Change. n/t

[Brother Buzz]

9. Same old, same old

[maryf]

10. K&R nt

[Solly Mack]

11. K&R