WP: U.S. Troop Levels in Iraq to Remain High

Far More Than Expected Will Stay Through 2005 to Deal With Insurgency, Officials Say


Wednesday, May 5, 2004; Page A01

Military officials plan to keep as many as 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq through the end of next year, maintaining a higher-than-expected level of forces there to quell the insurgency and provide security to the country long after it is slated to become a sovereign nation. Officials also plan to send more heavy equipment, such as tanks and armored vehicles, into Iraq to help secure U.S. forces against attack.

The Defense Department announced yesterday that officials plan to deploy 10,000 soldiers and Marines this summer to replace troops in the 1st Armored Division and the 2nd Light Cavalry Regiment who have had their stays in Iraq extended, and officials plan to identify 10,000 more troops soon to complete the replacement. About 6,000 National Guard and Reserve troops -- from more than a dozen states -- whose stays were extended also will be spelled in the next deployment.

An additional 37,000 combat support troops -- including about 16,000 reserves -- have been notified that they will rotate into Iraq this fall or early next year for possible 12-month deployments. The support units will provide services such as transportation, military police, logistics, maintenance and intelligence.

The deployments, at the request of combat commander Gen. John Abizaid, indicate that military officials believe they will need a far greater presence in Iraq than anticipated as recently as a month ago, to respond to the lingering insurgency and a growing number of U.S. casualties. Defense officials had expected to reduce the level of U.S. troops in Iraq to about 115,000 this year and about half that by the summer of 2005. Now, they are preparing to maintain a force of 138,000 for at least the next 18 months as they have seen violence rise over the past few weeks.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2064-2004May4.html

138,000 troops for 18 months isn't even in our federal budget.
Yeah, let's make the tax cuts permanent so all our kids have to pay for this for decades to come.
And half the country will vote for Bush because all the Republicans I know care about one thing only, getting their little greedy hands on a few more bucks. How Sick!

and Americans should be screaming holy hell....

rumsfeld should be PULLING OUR TROOPS OUT...not sending more to the slaughter....this is a major escalation of WAR....just like Vietnam....and you can expect much more slaughter of OUR troops...


'be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box'

"Pat isn't with God" said Rich Tillman. "He's f--ing DEAD. He wasn't religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he's f--ing DEAD."

It will carry on for a while, like Frankenstein's monster or a golem (although both of those are deserving of more sympathy than this war), but eventually it will topple over and expire. It is just a matter of how many more must die at its hands before this happens.

Wise ass Rumsfeld reply to an honest question. He sounded kind of shrill today & not nearly so wise assed, like his ass was in a sling or something.

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Marines, combat troops etc. are trained for FIGHTING, not peacekeeping.

When will that fecking WH get that through thier thick skulls.

Train men to fight, shoot and kill.

Then they are GOING to fight shoot and kill

Take all the cops out of NYC,

replace them with some troops and National Guard,

(preferably ones that don't speak English)

and see what a mess you get.

oh,

and just to make it a balanced comparison,

Make them mostly of a non-Christian based faith!

Military Intelligence my ass

Anything BUT in the US

(sigh)