04.11.07
Army Deployments Extended To 15 Months - [UPDATED]
Pentagon Adds Three Months To Iraq, Afghanistan Tours Of Duty.
The move affects thousands of soldiers from Fort Hood’s 1st Cavalry Division now serving in Iraq as part of Multinational Baghdad as well as thousands more soldiers from the post’s 4th Infantry Division who are expected to deploy again to the country.
Haven’t heard from Ft. Hood’s Congressman on this yet, we should hear something soon let’s hope. There’s been no call to service by the supposed “pro-military” folks like Rep. Carter to try and ease this burden on our military that is overstretched because of the decider’s deicisions.
Democrats charged that lengthening the time troops will be expected to stay in Iraq is further proof that the so-called “surge” that President Bush announced in January is really a long-term increase in troop strength likely to last well into next year. They also called it an acknowledgment that the Iraq war has seriously overstretched the U.S. military’s largest branch.”
The decision to extend the tours of U.S. service members by three months is an urgent warning that the administration’s Iraq policy cannot be sustained without doing terrible long-term damage to our military,” Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said in a statement. “We don’t have to guess at the impact on readiness, recruitment and retention.”
[…]
Marine Gen. Pete Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the extension was part of a U.S. strategy to give Iraqi leaders more time to find a political solution to violence there.
“What we are doing as a U.S. armed force with our coalition partners is buying time for the Iraqi government to provide the good governance and the economic activity that’s required,” Pace said.
Using the military to buy time for a political solution. It’s time for this all to end.
[UPDATE]: This from today’s AAS, Anger, frustration at Fort Hood.
Pfc. Floyd White Jr., a medic expecting to leave for Iraq in late fall, said longer stays there will hurt most at Christmas.”You could miss not just one Christmas, but two Christmases in a row,” said White, who is facing that prospect, as are most Fort Hood troops now in Iraq.
“To me, to extend to 15 months because of the rise of an insurgency, it’s got to tell you something about the war,” said White, whose son Christian was born during his last deployment. “No matter whether I’m for it or against it, I’ll do my job well, but if things were getting better, you’d think there would be less troops over there and for shorter periods of time.”
His wife, Theresa White, agreed.
“To a civilian, three months is 12 weeks,” she said. “To an Army wife, three months is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
My issues with this “war” and the larger “war on terrorism” have been that, 1) If this is such as just and noble cause why didn’t the President go to Congress and get them to declare war (We all know the answer to that) and 2) If this is such a just and noble cause where is the call to shared sacrifice by all from our “leadership” in this country. If this is truly a “clash of civilizations” shouldn’t we be pulling out all the stops? Other than everything’s fine, go shopping we don’t get much from our President and his people. And the soldiers and Marines and their families are doing the vast majority, if not all, of the sacrificing and that’s why this all must end.