Bush plans "2nd surge" - number of combat troops may double by Christmas.

[calteacherguy]

(05-22) 04:00 PDT Washington -- The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday.

The little-noticed second surge, designed to reinforce U.S. troops in Iraq, is being executed by sending more combat brigades and extending tours of duty for troops already there.

The actions could boost the number of combat soldiers from 52,500 in early January to as many as 98,000 by the end of this year if the Pentagon overlaps arriving and departing combat brigades.

Separately, when additional support troops are included in this second troop increase, the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq could increase from 162,000 now to more than 200,000 -- a record-high number -- by the end of the year.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/05/22/MNG7QPV65N1.DTL

[beyurslf]

1. NO! Dems better stand up and say no to this!

[deutsey]

2. So the king orders, so shall it be done

The American Republic was such a nice experiment...

[EFerrari]

3. He's killing us. n/t

[OzarkDem]

4. Why not?

He has carte blanche. He knows Dems won't stop him.

[philosophie_en_rose]

5. What a nice holiday present to the troops! (sarcasm).

:eyes: