Pentagon Announces Plan for New Troops in Iraq (1 year tour)

WASHINGTON (Reuters)

The Defense Department announced a plan on Wednesday to replace weary U.S. military personnel in Iraq with fresh American and international troops, with stints of up to a year for some American units.

As part of the troop rotation plan, the Army's 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), the first unit to enter Baghdad during the war and now shouldering a heavy burden in the postwar stabilization force, will be replaced by elements of the 82nd Airborne Division ---

OK, I am not at all knowledgeable about military stuff, so maybe I'm missing something here, but can someone answer this for me? How is it that an airborne division is going to be able to help keep peace and aid reconstruction on the ground? As a civilian layperson, that seems weird to me. What am I missing?

I've been under the impression that the amount of troops isn't the problem; it's not having enough troops who are properly trained for peacekeeping duties.

What's almost as puzzling as the 82nd being sent over is the new stryker brigade (light armor division) is going as well.

A Stryker Brigade is just an Light Armored Brigade. A Division usually has between 12,000 to 20,000 troops, while a Brigade has between 2,000 to 5,000 troops. The Stryker vehicle is a wheeled armored vehicle and has less armor
protection, while the Bradley is a tracked vehicle with better armor.

But the Stryker Brigades are not on line yet, so elements of the 82nd
Airborne and some Army Reserve units will be replacing the 3rd ID.

Or do they make both wheeled and tracked versions of it? I'm thinking of the eight-wheeled version with the 25-mm cannon on top when I think Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

I looked at the hierarchy of the Army, and basically the 82nd Airborne has a whole slew of functions. It doesn't sound as flashy if the news announces what subgroup of the division they are sending, and clearly it wouldn't matter anyway. Only locals know what the subgroups are but everyone knows the 82nd Airborne.

On a slightly different note, I wish someone would send Bush and Co. on a 3-hour tour...Condi can play the part of Ginger, from a brains point of view, anyway...

Later,
JM

Rove could be the Skipper.
Cheney could be Mr. Howell
That leaves the Professor, Mrs. Howell, & Mary Ann.

the Professor - Colin Powel
Mrs. Howel - Lynn Cheney
Mary Ann - Laura Bush

!

3rd Brigade, 2nd ID is the first Stryker Brigade that is being deployed. It's being deployed 4 years earlier then scheduled, this could mean a bloodbath beacuse of the light armor, or it could be just what's needed. But this brigade was pushed into deployable status, which is never a good thing.

Read a report on how well they did at NTC against the OPFOR unit, but
it could be an exercise that was staged, we won't know until they are
actually under combat conditions.

But this does leave the 2nd ID short one brigade, which means that if the NK's decide to do something, US troops will be shorthanded.

As for the 82nd it has 3 airborne infantry brigades, an airborne armor
brigade, an artillery brigade, and a division support command. The other units such as intel and signal are seperate commands and are only batallion sized units.

Now there are other units on Ft Bragg, but they don't all belong to the 82nd, they as well as the 82nd belong to the 18th Airborne Corps.
The 82nd also has a brigade committed to the peacekeeping force in the Sinai, and they have another in Afghanistan. An artillery brigade
does not do any good in an occupation force.

With all this in mind the troops to replace the 3rd ID should consist
of 1 brigade from the 82nd Airborne, 1 Stryker Brigade, and some Army
Reserve units. Whatever they send as replacements will have to equal
the number of troops in 2 Mech Inf Brigades, at least 10,000.

Then what will happen when it's time to replace the 101st Airborne, the 1st Armored, and the 4th Infantry Divisions, and the 2 or 3 armored cavalry regiments. We don't have the troops, and unless the military puts stop-loss into place for the duration of the occupation
this country will have to resort ot the draft again.

Can't wait for that to happen.

Small wonder Rummy increased, astronomically, the costs of his illegal escapades in Iraq.

We're broke, folks.

Island TV show....and this cast of characters in our white house...are perfect in the roles. Pompus asses.

I know several officers who were planning on military careers but are getting out now, thanks to Bush.

Looks like * has decided to refresh the fodder, and the 82nd is behind the 8 ball.