Where did the 7 months come from? He is reducing them from 15 back to 12 according to Army Times.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/20...aqtours_040908/
Then again, I am on my first cup of coffee this morning and may not be all that much 'in tune' with what I am reading.
Hubris,
The shorter tours are a direct result of the breakdown of our Army. Simply put, the personnel wheels are flying off our army, it is running on fumes, and guys like Patreaus and Odierno want to keep the pedal to the floor in Iraq.
And because the Patreaus position supports W's #1 goal (leave office with our troops fully engaged in Iraq--therefore any subsequent withdrawal is NOT HIS DEFEAT!), the troops keep on going. Year long tours (as units), stop-loss (to protect unit integrity) and ZERO expansion of the Army via a draft.
Twelve month tours now. What will be possible in 6 or 12 months from now? Will the new president even have an option? You can only send volunteers back to war zones (where they cannot achieve success) so many times before they flat out stop being volunteers. Add to the personnel dimension the vast, vast equipment problems - how many new Hummers, Helos, tanks, trucks, rifles, etc will be needed to replace our losses? Last year, Army said that it would cost $13,000,000,000 to begin to rebuild itself!
And who gets rewarded? Patreaus and Odierno. Ray replaces Vice Chief of Army Staff Cody later this summer. What a surprise! Nothing like putting those who "win" into higher positions of military authory. Worked for Petraeus right? What ever happened to the security forces Patreaus made in 2004-05? Oh yeah, they never showed up to a fight (just like the ones he made in 2007 who bugged out at the first shot in Basra)!
Steve Coll covers it much more eloquently in a recent issue of the New Yorker (http://tinyurl.com/4wrt22).
And the damage done by the Bush reign to the professional military will last a long, long time. How many young, combat-experienced officers are leaving? How many combat-experienced majors, Lt Colonels and Colonels are leaving? How many more are being passed over for higher rank because they refuse to sign on the the Bush party line ("victory is around every corner")? How long will the generals appointed by Bush's DoD will remain in high military office.
A piece of advice for the next President... massive housecleaning of the Federal Gov't national security apparatus is needed beginning January 21, 2009. Perhaps the right words for it would be "de-Bushification"!
What happened to my country?
SP
u libruls are libtards
obvusly u didt reed the pro surge artikle tat tells the truth abut the war in iraq:
http://digg.com/
political_opinio...erican_soldiers
and
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB...in_commentaries
this is wat amerikanz patriuts like me believe is truth, and u libtards want AMERICA to loze!!!11
what we need is more surge!!!!111
Here is a quote from the artikle to u libtards:
"The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers. Yes, young Iraqi boys know about "GoArmy.com.""
Even when these guys eek out some minor, miniscule, tiny advantage
they got mice?
SP; good post. Don't be a stranger here. :o)
At this point, it's ALL about finding some way to string out the misery, until bush and the petro-turds can bail and dump it in the democrats laps.
7 months is going to be an eternity.
personal experience with torture
i've seen it face to face and it disgusts me.
one very dark night
a personal account of one counter intelligence operation. one of the reasons it was a success is that nobody got shot, nobody got tortured.
preznit, I specifically told myself to make sure I wrote "eak" not eek, and damned if that wasnt exactly what I didnt do. thanks
SP, yes, well said.
its a generational impact on the military and the country.
Onto Iran!
preznit, I specifically told myself to make sure I wrote "eak" not eek, and damned if that wasnt exactly what I didnt do. thanks
actually, you wanted eke
What the fuck is it with the Labor party?
That they KEEP hitching their wagon to george bush's imploding ass?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
tol...icle3736241.ece
damn it!
preznit:
Maybe Hubris wanted Eek A Mouse.
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