Bush could double force by Christmas
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.
The numbers were arrived at by an analysis of deployment orders by Hearst Newspapers.
“It doesn’t surprise me that they’re not talking about it,” said retired Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, a former U.S. commander of NATO troops in Bosnia, referring to the Bush administration. “I think they would be very happy not to have any more attention paid to this.”
Uhh yeah notice the silence on this. WTF we arent doing any good, Iraq wants us gone, so lets get the hell out and let them have their civil war. Wasnt this about giving them a choice?
I feel sorry for the troop being used as fertilizer for a loser.
Goin’ down, in a blaze of glory…
And by glory, I mean a Republican in the White House after Bush.
#1 the silence is for the fallen, our brave men and women who signed up to protect us.
we can criticize our leader for his adventurism, and we should hold to account our soldiers who cross the line, but our soldiers are our nation’s bravest people, and the most professional in the world.
as memorial day approaches, let us not forget that each troop is a human, a brother or sister, and that the “surge” is a sea of our family members facing the threats of the world so we don’t have to.
i raise my hat, and will raise a drink and will pour some on the curb for the brothers and sister who won’t be coming to our barbecues.
There is absolutely no reason to believe the surge is working.
http://icasualties.org/oif/
Look at the numbers since the surge started in February. There is absolutely no indication it’s working at all — despite the shameless claims otherwise by Bush and his supporters.
Grig, who the smeg are they protecting?
Themselves and the corporate yabbos over there to take advantage of the Iraqis.
They certainly are not protecting ME from the iraqis. They were not even close to coming here. The 911 hijackers were all saudis. Bin Laden is saudi. Yet Saudi Arabia is our ally and allowed to teach kids in school that we are infidels slated for death. Our other ally Pakistan is slowly becoming taliban and has a military coup leader as their head of state.
Kuwait is another kingodm that allows no personal freedoms like the way George Ahnover did on us, we are NOW the hessians, whistled up and brought into harms way to keep despotic monarchs in power!
Washington would think we’ve all gone mad and worse think the people of this nation were drugged or dead for not telling the government we are not imperial lapdogs for despotic regimes.
The soldiers volunteered to do these things. They can all revolt and say no more, but they are blinded by fear of going to the pokey or brainwashed by the rhetoric of their commanders that are bucking for comfy desks at the Pentagon.
All of it is worthless, we have become like Middle Ages Switzerland, mercenaries for hire by anyone with enough cash or material wealth to pay us.
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#5
i never said i supported the war, sparky — i don’t
i never said we needed protecting from the iraqis — we don’t
all i said don’t be an armchair general. or act like those jerks in the pub in the book ‘all quiet on the western front’ and certainly don’t advocate mutiny, that’s just plain stupid — you think corporations and their poliitcal puppets are calling the shots now?
hahahahahahahahahhahahaha
be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
Once again another great piece of news coverage.
#4 – If you were to create a multi-variable analysis of the current situation measuring “success” as the dependent variable, what variables would you choose for the independents? Just friendly K.I.A.? Certainly you could come up with four or five, 10 or more is what you should be shooting for.
#5 – “The soldiers volunteered to do these things. They can all revolt and say no more, but they are blinded by fear of going to the pokey or brainwashed by the rhetoric of their commanders that are bucking for comfy desks at the Pentagon.” – That is one of the most ignorant comments I’ve heard from the ultra left, it even beat out the several times I’ve been called an “Iraqi baby killer.” As a person who is going into the military after college, I can say personally that I am not “blinded by fear” or “brainwashed.”
To all the people who claim that the surge is failing, how do you explain the dramatic fall in extra-judicial killings? What about the political progress, coupled with military progress, associated with the rise of three major “Awaking Parties” to the east and west of Baghdad? What does the dropping of the R in the SCIRI Party mean for the future of the political organization? What about the increased effectiveness of the Iraqi military and their ability to launch and sustain offensive operations?
Here is a great report by Bing West (http://tinyurl.com/2ku2dv) a good exert: “The reasonable timeline for counterinsurgency and nation-building under such conditions is ten to twenty years. The administration and the Pentagon attempted to complete “full-spectrum counterinsurgency” – i.e., clear, hold and rebuild the key cities – in 2005, transition to Iraqi forces in 2006, and begin leaving in 2007. If accomplished, that would have been the fastest turnaround in history.”
Ok so you will go into the military AFTER college? For what?
You won’t be serving the people, we don’t have the power anymore. You will be serving the corporations that put the money into the politicians pockets.
You will be a low paid merc. I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemy. Risking your life for leadership that views you the same as the sheep they ran over mindfields in the past. That or because you have a degree you will go OTC and fly a desk or sit in a green zone and wonder how bad it can get for the pawns out on the battlefield.
Stay home, build a business, train people to do a good job, keep you overhead low by working smart and towards the end user. Raise a family and BE THERE for them, add value to your community. No armed service will allow you do that. Their sole task in life is to destroy and advance death.
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Maybe all these “brave men and women who signed up to protect” big business and make huge profits for dick and his friends in the military and oil complex spent to much time as babies in the microwave.
Sorry Uncle Dave but I could have done without the picture. The last time I saw boots lined up like that, they were green.
#4 – Greg,
Measuring soldier casualties has absolutely nothing to do with measuring success or failure. If it were so, we could reduce soldier casualties to zero by leaving tomorrow and then claim great success.
The true measure of success requires analyzing the political and social stability of the country being occupied; if the country is heading towards stability by a set number of measurements, then progress is being made. If measurements don’t indicate a positive trend, then it is failure.
Remember, what the White House fears is not what happens while our troops are there, but what happens when they leave.
Keep your eye on the ball, not on the cheerleaders.
The big mistake with the first surge was announcing it. This let the enemy scatter to other provinces to wreak havoc instead of being killed.