Army Is Told to Plan for Shorter Tours in Iraq -NYT

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - The acting secretary of the Army has told the service to begin drawing up plans to shorten the 12-month tour lengths of soldiers sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The memo dated Oct. 8 from Les Brownlee, the acting Army secretary, makes clear that those reductions would not be taken until the insurgency in Iraq diminishes and the capabilities of Iraqi security forces improves.

But the memo clearly emphasizes the urgency of having plans ready. It comes as the Army wrestles with two powerful, competing needs: finding enough soldiers to fulfill commitments in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and finding ways to make those tours less onerous for the soldiers and their families.
..........
Army personnel officers, as well as those representing the Army Reserve and National Guard, say their ability to recruit and retain soldiers will erode unless combat tours are shortened, perhaps to six or nine months. At the same time, Army war planners have significant concerns that the Army, at its current size and configuration, cannot meet projected requirements for Iraq and Afghanistan unless active duty and reserve troops spend 12 months on the ground there.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/19/politics/19army.html?oref=login

"those reductions would not be taken until the insurgency in Iraq diminishes"

That should be real soon. But it's good we'll have those plans just in case.

dead, like I did? I mean, you can't have an Iraqi left who thinks that they should be able to govern their own country and who would also allow the wholesale theft of their only asset, the oil.

And then there's the issue of the 14 air bases. This ugly little problem will never go away, not if there's and independent bone left in an Iraqi body.

So, in order to make this plan work, we have to bomb all their asses into submission, or expect the troops to be doing extended duty in Iraq until (like I said) there's icicles hanging from the rafters of hell.

This article was stupid. It means nothing will change until we complete the occupation and then it won't change, because we have Iran and Syria in our sights next.

these plans will be circularly filed immediatley after elections.

If W gets another term, he can break any implied commitment or promise he damn well pleases, and he will. And there won't be a thing anyone can do about it.

Also, all of the states and local governments and their first responders - firemen and policemen - were told post 9/11 to plan on getting federal funds for equipment and training to beef up that ephemeral concept "Homeland Security". So they went out and purchased radio/communication systems; decontamination equipment/supplies; training for biological and chemical emergencies for personnel, etc. Guess what? Promises don't mean jack to the Bush administration. They are no more than a way to get favorable news bites and are then forgotten. State and local governments and YOUR local fire and police departments were left hanging out to dry by Bush.

This story of shorter deployments has no more substance than any of the other happy horseshit PR announcements put out by W.

smack them down after the election. These soldiers are going to be mentally ill just from the games these guys play with their heads....never mind the killing of innocent people in an illegal war.

instead of serving one or two tours, they will be serving 5 or more tours.