WASHINGTON - In a new sign of mounting strain from the war in Iraq, the Army has extended the combat tours of about 4,000 soldiers who would otherwise be returning home, a defense official said Monday.
The 1st Brigade of 1st Armored Division, which is operating in the vicinity of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, will be kept in place for several weeks beyond their scheduled departure, the official said. The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced by the Pentagon.
The brigade's home base is in Germany. The soldiers' families were notified of the extension Monday, the official said.
The brigade has about 4,000 soldiers in Iraq. They were scheduled to be there a maximum of 12 months, but they are not the first to be extended.
In late July the Army extended the Iraq tour of the Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade. About 300 soldiers from that unit had already returned home and were required to go back to Iraq. The brigade is now operating in Baghdad.
The 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division was extended in order to allow its replacement unit, from the 3rd Infantry Division, the minimum 12 months between overseas tours, the official said. The 3rd Infantry has already served two tours in Iraq, including the initial invasion of the country in March 2003.
Last week, the top American commander in the region said the U.S. military is likely to maintain and may even increase its force of more than 140,000 troops in Iraq through next spring. Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said military leaders would consider adding troops or extending the Iraq deployments of other units if needed.
Until sectarian violence spiked early this year, Bush administration officials had voiced hopes that this election year would see significant U.S. troop reductions in what has become a widely unpopular war.
The Army has a stated goal of giving active-duty soldiers two years at home between overseas combat tours, but it is unable to achieve that "dwell time," as the Army calls, because it does not have enough brigades to meet the demands of simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It would not be a problem now if the situation in Iraq had improved enough to allow the Army to reduce its presence as originally planned.
Army Secretary Francis Harvey told The Associated Press last week that the amount of time between deployments has shrunk this year from 18 months to 14 months. In the case of the 3rd Infantry, it appears at least one brigade will get only about 12 months because heading for Iraq to replace the extended brigade of the 1st Armored.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060925/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq
It is similar to the Vietnam war because in that war there were limited casualties every year until 1964. The first soldier to die was in 1959 and there was only 160+ dead by 1964. So that was about 4 and 1/2 years.
Second the government of Vietnam like the Iraq government is weak, and there is this added dimension of death squads 9shite and sunni that go around the cities. Killing people of the different sect.
And since America death tolls are higher in the 3 1/2 then they were in Vietnam, 2,700+ at this very moment, if more troops go in and the death toll climbs higher, if it lasts as long as the Vietnam war did, 14+ years, you might expect an even higher American death toll than in Vietnam.
The 1st Brigade of 1st Armored Division, which is operating in the vicinity of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, will be kept in place for several weeks beyond their scheduled departure, the official said. The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced by the Pentagon.
The brigade's home base is in Germany. The soldiers' families were notified of the extension Monday, the official said.
The brigade has about 4,000 soldiers in Iraq. They were scheduled to be there a maximum of 12 months, but they are not the first to be extended.
In late July the Army extended the Iraq tour of the Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade. About 300 soldiers from that unit had already returned home and were required to go back to Iraq. The brigade is now operating in Baghdad.
The 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division was extended in order to allow its replacement unit, from the 3rd Infantry Division, the minimum 12 months between overseas tours, the official said. The 3rd Infantry has already served two tours in Iraq, including the initial invasion of the country in March 2003.
Last week, the top American commander in the region said the U.S. military is likely to maintain and may even increase its force of more than 140,000 troops in Iraq through next spring. Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said military leaders would consider adding troops or extending the Iraq deployments of other units if needed.
Until sectarian violence spiked early this year, Bush administration officials had voiced hopes that this election year would see significant U.S. troop reductions in what has become a widely unpopular war.
The Army has a stated goal of giving active-duty soldiers two years at home between overseas combat tours, but it is unable to achieve that "dwell time," as the Army calls, because it does not have enough brigades to meet the demands of simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It would not be a problem now if the situation in Iraq had improved enough to allow the Army to reduce its presence as originally planned.
Army Secretary Francis Harvey told The Associated Press last week that the amount of time between deployments has shrunk this year from 18 months to 14 months. In the case of the 3rd Infantry, it appears at least one brigade will get only about 12 months because heading for Iraq to replace the extended brigade of the 1st Armored.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060925/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq
It is similar to the Vietnam war because in that war there were limited casualties every year until 1964. The first soldier to die was in 1959 and there was only 160+ dead by 1964. So that was about 4 and 1/2 years.
Second the government of Vietnam like the Iraq government is weak, and there is this added dimension of death squads 9shite and sunni that go around the cities. Killing people of the different sect.
And since America death tolls are higher in the 3 1/2 then they were in Vietnam, 2,700+ at this very moment, if more troops go in and the death toll climbs higher, if it lasts as long as the Vietnam war did, 14+ years, you might expect an even higher American death toll than in Vietnam.
