ABC NEWS HAS LEARNED THAT THE ARMY HAS PUT ON THE DEFENSE SECRETARY’S DESK A PROPOSAL TO EXTEND THE TOUR OF DUTY FOR EVERY ACTIVE DUTY SOLDIER IN IRAQ BY THREE MONTHS.
“Everybody” presumably includes disabled soldiers force-marched back into the fray, overextended Guard units and troops who have already been stop-lossed too many times to count. A sensible person would take a desperation move like this to mean that we don’t have any spare troops kicking around.
At the end of this three month extension our troops will be in the same place they are today, only three months more worn down. Reinforcements still won’t be coming. Don’t look to the National Guard.
When the three months run out and nothing has changed, what then?
***Update***
A uniformed reader reports that ABC may be full of shit about the “everybody” part. It wouldn’t be the first time.
merlallen
The boys at Red State will join.
Carol H
My son is currently in his 8th month of a 12 month deployment. He has been told that after he returns home in August he will return to Iraq in less than a year. He was married 2 months before he left and his wife is posting a countdown of his remaining days on his Myspace site and I am trying not to think about how they will take the news if he is extended. He has a hard deployment, some have it harder than he but his is plenty hard. His unit was one of the first ones on the scene of the truck bomb/chlorine bomb last week in Ramadi. Now Bush is on my teevee telling us that it will be the Democrat’s fault if deployments as extended. Does even the remaining 30% of Bushies even believe this stuff?
Punchy
Boy, Timmy, you left out some good other good stuff. At the end of said interview, they say the military will “guarentee” a at-home stay of at least 12 months for those that “surge”.
My question–how in the fuck can they guarentee this? What if the Prez instructs them otherwise? What if he re-surges?
Shorter: a completely empty, hollow promise. As good as the toilet paper I’m sure it was scribbled on. If George says “resurge”, you think the military would revolt??
Punchy
Can anyone explain this to me? Let’s give ALL benefit of doubt that he didn’t mispeak; that he meant this at face value. And with all seriousness and no snark, how can this be concluded?
Isn’t HE in charge of the military? Isn’t HE FOR the surge, and the Dems against it? And aren’t extended deployments A RESULT of a surge, something that wouldn’t be required is there was no surge?
So…following my logic train….I say again….WTF? How does this compute? Tim? Help!
David
Anything that causes people to dislike George Bush is the Democrats’ fault.
Or Satan.
See? Simple.
neil
It ain’t September 12 any more. I think America sees through these petty threats even if the fourth estate doesn’t guide them through it.
PaulB
Sure, it’s the standoff he’s having with Congress over the funding. See, he’s whining that they aren’t giving him the funding bill he wants, so he can’t fund all the training and equipment needed for the replacement troops. Hence, he’ll have to extend the tour of duty of the troops currently in Iraq.
It’s all a crock of crap, of course; just the usual bullshit and political theater from this administration which doesn’t know how to do anything else.
Joe1347
The linked article looks legit. As for the 12 month at-home ‘promise’ before re-deployment. I wonder if that’s more for the troops and their families – to keep them from revolting – or to somehow get Congress to ‘support’ the plan. Obviously, Bush knows he has only a few more months to show reasonable progress – unlike the recent make believe stuff from McCain and the Bush Admin leadership appears to believe that the troops (on the ground) can make a difference. At least I hope that the Bush Admin thinks that the troops might be able to make a difference and that the troops aren’t being used in a big game of political chicken. Specifically, just keep cranking up the deployments in expectation (or to provoke) the Democrats into trying to stop Bush. Of course, once the Democrats say that the 3 month extension is a mistake, Bush will trot out the old defeatocrats – Democrats don’t want to win, Democrats are wimpy quiters, etc.
scarshapedstar
The Dhimmicrats will stab our troops in the back and surrender to The Terrorists.
scarshapedstar
And, yes, I’m aware that it’s kind of impossible to “surrender” when you’re the goddamn invader (not to mention that there’s no one to surrender to) but that just shows you how deeply the Left hates Freedom.
Paul Wartenberg
Look at this as an improvement. It used to be these things were extended by six months. Getting it down to three months should be viewed as a moral victory.
Richard Bottoms
Very distressing.
Fortunately I didn’t vote for the asshole raining this destruction down on our armed forces. I suspect the party of the person who is running this fiasco (George Bush) will pay a pretty hefty price at the polls come next year.
Heh.
Tsulagi
I thought for new deployments they’d already announced that Army would have 15 month tours (up from 12) and Marines would be bumped up to 12 from typically 7. Looks like they’re doubling down on the surge, or possibly the admin plans to use this as a chip in dealing with the Dems on the supplementals.
I hope in that proposal on Gates desk it also has all the pesky little logistical thingies worked out. Typically troops redeploying back to their home bases have been leaving a fair amount of gear and equipment for those taking their place. If all those guys are now staying, and a lot of new guys are coming, I hope someone has done some planning. Sleeping quarters could get a little crowded. But contractors will be happy.
Yeah. Uh huh. Maybe the military might guarantee, but don’t forget who’s The Ultimate Decider.
tBone
Then we just station them there indefinitely. Sooner or later the success that hasn’t happened yet will manifest itself. We just have to be patient, as Douglas Adams counseled:
demimondian
Aw, c’mon, Tim. Of course it’s the Democrats fault. They haven’t acceded to the President’s demand that they report to him about how the supplemental bill is doing in committee.
The question, of course, is whether the rest of the American public will remember that they have absolutely need to “report” to the President, and that it’s unbelievably presumptuous for him to use that term. The Speaker is the highest ranking official in the Legislative branch of the government, and she is, quite literally, beholden to no man. Not even the Pretzeldent.
Pb
They rotate in the next batch, of course! Stay the course, you spineless, freedom-hating surrender monkeys! The surge is working, in spite of your fascist demands! All hail President Bush, the Great Liberator of the Middle East!
Pb
And of course the military’s promises aren’t worth the paper they’re (occasionally) printed on:
Ted
Then Darrell will sign up. He’s just been waiting until it is really necessary.
DougJ
Carol, sorry to hear about your son being stuck in Iraq. Here’s to bringing him home as soon as possible.
Barrasso
It seems to me that studies done in WW2 showed the average combat effectiveness limit for all soldiers was 100 days in combat, after 100 days even the bravest soldiers started to break down as they realized that their luck could only hold so long, or the stress just plain wore them out. I can’t say for sure if life as a soldier in Iraq can compare to actual front line combat, but if it has half the effect most of these soldiers will be in deep trouble before they are out.
semper fubar
Remember- breaking the miltary is a feature not a bug!
The sooner Bush can crush the military completely, the sooner he can start diverting ALL military funding to Blackwater. A strong mercenary army that isn’t constrained by any pesky congressional oversight and will kill for whomever pays it the most is a dream come true for the adminstration. Plus- think of all the millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks from the Blackwaters of the world, funnelled to nice offshore accounts, that will pad the retirement funds of our glorious leaders.
When you look at it from the republican perspective, the surge is working!
RTO Trainer
Rest easy. ABC has the story wrong.
What’s being considered is a 120 day extension for up to 15,000 troops, 5 active-duty brigades. This is right in line with the possible deployement of 4 Guard brigades (one of them my own) to replace those brigades becasue of the 12 month cap on Guard deployments othrewise there’s a 90 day gap in rotations as well as no time for a relief in place (RIP) which is what the other 30 days are for.
I’d recommend you do some research on what stop-loss is and how it works, your comments show a lack of understanding.
In that regard, Pb, all 7 of the Soldiers in your quote will be separated from service either upon cancellation of mobilization alert, or 90 days after they redeploy.
FWIW, I’m in Afghanistan now, for a second time. My brigade is on alert for Iraq around January of ’08 and it’s possible I’ll be going on that one too, perhaps voluntarilly, perhaps not. In any case, I signed up to serve (as did most of us) and this is it. I don’t know, maybe it’d be easier to handle the oversolicitous attitudes toward our training, equipping and welfare if it weren’t so apparently politicaly expedient.
I leave you with a prediction: At whatever point everyone redeploys, the National Guard still won’t have all it’s equipment, the VA will still not be fully funded, and, failing to get the lesson learned for the 6th straight time, we’ll draw the active components down even further, becuse unless there’s political hay to be made, no one really cares.
canuckistani
You can surrender to France, or Canada, or any other country that hates freedom.
Lee
Man-o-Man I never thought I would write this, but hearing more and more about how bad things are getting are actually making me think how I should try to get back in to the Marines to help relieve the strain.
I’m 42 with 2 young kids and a $250k mortgage, 20 pounds overweight, ring finger on my right hand is frozen and a whobbly left knee from my prior service.
Barry
Punchy Says:
“Boy, Timmy, you left out some good other good stuff. At the end of said interview, they say the military will “guarentee” a at-home stay of at least 12 months for those that “surge”.
My question—how in the fuck can they guarentee this? What if the Prez instructs them otherwise? What if he re-surges?
Shorter: a completely empty, hollow promise. As good as the toilet paper I’m sure it was scribbled on. If George says “resurge”, you think the military would revolt??”
My guess is that Bush lies, because that’s what he does. The troops will be kept in Iraq as long as he orders, and redeployed with very short Stateside stays, if he orders.
Remember that he has noooooo problem burning out the Army, Marines and NG, as long as nothing catastrophically breaks down (meaning, to the point that the American people realize that it’s broken).
It’d be just his style to hand over a burned-out, gutted wreck to the next president. Even if that were a Republican.
Chad N. Freude
But the Commander in Chief has a plan to make things better.
Oh, wait.
Pb
RTO Trainer,
FYI (see above):
Tsulagi
Knew I should have waited before commenting above or checked it out more closely. Blanket tour extensions for all currently in country just sounded like something Decider Man would decide for the new and improved Stay the Course.
grumpy realist
So Bush is yelling at the Democrats because they won’t sign a blank check for his war which “is turning the corner any minute now, honest!”
The US military: being destroyed on the altar of Bush’s ego.
And all the pundits will gleefully accuse those who want to get out of Iraq as “stabbing the US in the back.”
May all of their children be drafted for the front lines. It’s about the only thing I can think that would cause them to stop treating this as commentary on pro football. For most of the MSM, Iraq is being treated as the ultimate Reality Show.
demimondian
And, to bring this back full circle, SecDef just announced 90-day tour extensions for all soldiers in country in Iraq or Afghanistan. That’s on *top* of stop loss, it appears.
Tsulagi
Yep, it appears ABC had the story correct, and I should have stayed with my first gut instinct about our Glorious Decider.
So Gates said “I think it is fair to all soldiers that all share the burden equally,” Guess he was only referring to Army. They got bumped to 15. Marines tours stay at 7 and Guard/Reserve at 12.
HyperIon
yeah, that’s pretty much what Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill says. i saw him interviewed on CSPAN a couple of weeks ago. he mentioned seeing Blackwater guys on the streets of NOLA right after the storm. he said they looked like they had come straight from Iraq…hummers, body armor, weapons. they were there for security. scary.
HyperIon
question: i know that marines are not called soldiers. (or at least i think i know that.) and maybe the guys in the reserves are called reservists. but what are guys in the guards called? i guess i’m really asking: if one says soliders, does that automatically mean people in the army?
Tsulagi
Red-headed goofy stepchildren. LOL
The US Army is made up of three components: regular Army; Army Reserve; and National Guard. Those in all three are soldiers. Someone in the Reserve or Guard who is activated and serving in Iraq or anywhere else is just as much a soldier as someone in regular Army, even though some in the regular component might argue that.
RTO Trainer
Air Guardsmen are called Airmen, just like their confreres in the Air Force, of which they are a component.
Just pointing that out as there are two branches in the Guard.