Pentagon OKs Deploying Iraq Backup

AP

Some 2,600 soldiers from a combat aviation unit will go to Iraq ahead of schedule, part of the support troops the Pentagon has said are needed to back the extra combat units President Bush is sending there.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved the deployment of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division combat aviation brigade 45 days earlier than planned, meaning they will go around May, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Friday.

The approval will mean roughly 30,000 troops eventually will go to Baghdad and Anbar Province in the Bush administration's buildup to crack down on rising sectarian violence and insurgents, Whitman said.

Two months ago, Mr. Bush ordered 21,500 additional American troops to Iraq to help calm the violence. He did not initially mention the support units that would also be needed.

Officials later said that the number of support troops needed for the influx could be around 7,000. These include some 2,400 combat support troops and some 2,200 military police to help with an anticipated increase in detainees picked up during the crackdown.

Asked what he would say to critics of the steady additions to the original number, Whitman noted that some of the requests came after new U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus arrived in Iraq and assessed what he needed.

"The secretary wants to be responsive to the commanders," he said, adding that Gates wants to give commanders what they believe they need to do the job as long as the requests are justified.

Meanwhile, the military reported Friday the deaths of two more American troops. A statement said a soldier was killed by an explosion during fighting Thursday in a mainly Sunni province northwest of Baghdad, and a Marine died Wednesday in the western Anbar province.

The Marine's death was being classified as a non-combat incident and was still under investigation, according to the statement.

In other developments:

A military panel found a 101st Airborne soldier guilty of three counts of negligent homicide but not guilty of premeditated murder in the deaths of three Iraqi detainees.

Saadoun Hammadi, a longtime ally of Saddam Hussein and one of the most senior Iraq Baath party leaders who also served as a rare Shiite prime minister under Saddam has died in a hospital in Germany, a Baath party spokesman and the party's Web site said. Hammadi was released from a prison camp in Iraq in February 2004, after nine months in the custody of U.S. troops. He left Iraq for medical treatment in Jordan, Lebanon and Germany, but settled in Qatar in early 2005. He was believed to be suffering from leukemia.

A roadside bomb exploded Thursday in eastern Baghdad, killing four U.S. soldiers and wounding two others, the U.S. military said. The attack began when one bomb went off as a U.S. unit was returning from a search operation in the mostly Shiite area, the military said. Moments later, a second bomb exploded, killing and wounding the soldiers.

A coroner conducting an inquest into a U.S. "friendly fire" attack that killed a British soldier during the Iraq war said Friday the death was entirely avoidable. Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker also criticized the U.S. military for failing to cooperate with his investigation into the incident. "I believe that the full facts have not yet come to light," Walker said as he began reading his verdict.

House Democrats have pushed ahead with plans to set a September 2008 troop withdrawal deadline but suffered defeat on a more modest plan in the Senate.

An attack against the top official in the Sadr City area of Baghdad, home of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia, has created tension in the ranks of militiamen, with some blaming a faction unhappy about cooperation with Americans, a local commander said Friday. Gunmen opened fire on the convoy carrying Rahim al-Darraji Thursday in eastern Baghdad, seriously wounding him and killing two of his bodyguards on Thursday, police and a local official said.

A radical Shiite cleric on Friday calling on his supporters to resist U.S. forces in Iraq, and a local militia commander blamed an attack against the mayor of Sadr City on a faction unhappy about cooperation with Americans. "The occupiers want to harm this beloved (Sadr City) and tarnish its name by spreading false rumors and allegations that negotiations and cooperation are ongoing between you and them," Muqtada al-Sadr said in a statement read to worshippers by Sheik Haider al-Jabri. "I am confident that you will not make concessions to them and will remain above them. Raise your voices in love and brotherhood and unity against your enemy and shout 'No, no America.'"

[forthepeaple]

HAVE BEEN TELLING ALL OF YOU TO GO AND READ THE FACTS TRUE FACTS ABOUT IRAQ AND IRAN..HOW MUCH LONGER TO I HAVE TO KEEP POSTING THE SAME THING UNTIL YOU ALL READ IT..go to www.scoop.co.nz go to search tab and put in PENTAGON WHISTLE-BLOWER IRAQ and read it..it is sad but true and until you americans wake up and smell the s/h/i/t/ that your government has been telling you for CENTURIES.....
I was once proud to be american and proud to say i i'm a vet,now i just want out.You all in congress and capital hill and white house should be working for america and the americans that elected you to protect us,that isn't the case and i know why. I have been looking and found something that all america has forgotton.Who said this statement: If the personal freedoms of all americans by the Constitution and bill of right are Inhibiting the Government ability to (Govern)that meant control, the people of united states of america..Than we Should look to Limit those GUARANTEES #2.The united states Government CAN'T BE so fixed on our desires to preserve the RIGHTS of ORDINARY AMERICANS #3.I can do any ********* thing i want,I'm president of the united states and you dont forget that.....who am I..... so you all have been following your orders well i want you all to know that i hold all of you accountable for the murders of thousends of americans that have died and wounded in a war we have no buisness being in,

[tbweb]

The U.S. President has a 30 percent approval rating. The Republicans lost the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate in the last election. 70 percent of the American people want the U.S. out of Iraq. Yet, the President can keep U.S. Troops in Iraq and even increase their numbers all by himself with little support! As much as I support our system of government, this interesting situation may just mean the U.S. President, no matter who sits in that office has too much power. If there is no mechanism to influence this office to the will of the American people or turn its power off when the American people want if off then the power of this office may need to be revisited!

[figuy30]

more troops? thank God we're not in a war. we might then need a new president and some new generals.

[baldfrog-2009]

To ALL you Rep W4 Iraq War Lovers being paid by Rove to publish his ads on here. Yes being paid to go through the net,the press to publish editorials in papers call in radio media for money.I am not buying it and trust me I know about roves honorable tactics.He knows a lot about forging stationary and character assassination.Ask someone who lived the(Watergate era) who old Rover's former boss was a big player.Ask John Dean? He knows that history.So rove lovin war mongers call Rush Bimbas E.D.Limbas,show over and over again masturbating him with Republican accolades,what piece of work that drug addict is.
Why not enlist take the rest of your pals with ya tough guys.Surge on!. Ya don't even have to do desert warfare training anymore.We'll get ya in the game quick.Check out Bidon's comments on W's War, from the Senate.Then go do war.Report back to us the about unknown Mission impossible?Take Mitch McConnell,Lindsey Graham and Rove with ya.After your 3rd tour come back and tell us all how that Iraqi Freedom is all working.Get some tips at Walter Reed before ya go about armored up!What a gift from this "compassionate administration.Idiot's You Pathetic Idiots!Buying guns weapons(even with words) and fear from guys who sell em to both sides.Playing both sides of your ego against each other like "pawns" and having you call it Patriotic.Who will profit,who will die,and who will pay?

[j-whitman]

Musty,,, Privatization maybe good for your pocket,, But it obviously isn't good for our military or veterana... And it's no way to fight a war...

[j-whitman]

Musty,,, Haliburton's move is a National Security issue, in adition to possibly evading prosecutions -- It's too big & needs to be taken down.

[musty2u]

Halliburton is spliting the headquarters, some will remain in Houston. Don't forget Halliburton has over 45,000 employees globally and intends to incresse that number by 13,000 in 2007. Folks, this isn't a mom and pop grocery we are talking about.

[sharncedar]

It is indeed wrong for us to pubish troop deployment where our enemies can read about it and profit from it. Our enemies are those Americans who care more about wealth than honor, more about business than human commerce, more about their feeling of prestige than the prestige of their nation. We are betrayed from within.

Arabs don't even care about us. The only one who bothered to attack America was Bin Laden, and he of course was a contractor of the CIA for many years, and had close ties to the Bush family.

No its true that for most foolish people their "own worst enemy is themselves" and for this nation, our worst enemy is our ignorance and greed. What a terrible price some have paid for our wasteful greed, intemperance, asset bubbles and mania. What a terrible price. The best of our nation, pieces of them lying in a foreign field, while the greed machine parties on. Paris Hilton and her friends dance on their bodies, they burn real estate cash and ill-gotten gains in orgies of wanton waste, while our heroes lie still, without breath, unmourned, unremembered.

We are indeed tempting fate to be so ungrateful.

[bluestardad]

HERE ARE THE REPUBLICAN SENATORS UP FOR REELECTION IN 08 WRITE THEM ASK THEM IF THEIR SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL TRUMPS THEIR DUTY TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WHO ARE BEING KILLED FROM THEIR STATES?

ASK THEM HOW MUCH AIPAC INFLUENCES THEIR VOTES ON IRAQ?

http://www.aipac.org/forms/join_aipacClubs.htm


Alexander, Lamar- (R - TN)
Allard, Wayne- (R - CO)
Chambliss, Saxby- (R - GA)
Cochran, Thad- (R - MS)
Coleman, Norm- (R - MN)
Collins, Susan M.- (R - ME)
Cornyn, John- (R - TX)
Craig, Larry E.- (R - ID)
Dole, Elizabeth- (R - NC)
Enzi, Michael B.- (R - WY)
Graham, Lindsey- (R - SC)
Hagel, Chuck- (R - NE)
Inhofe, James M.- (R - OK)
McConnell, Mitch- (R - KY)
Roberts, Pat- (R - KS)
Sessions, Jeff- (R - AL)
Smith, Gordon H.- (R - OR)
Stevens, Ted- (R - AK)
Sununu, John E.- (R - NH)
Warner, John- (R - VA)

If you think Americas sacrifice is worth it contact your ELECTED OFFICIAL and tell them http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

The House Speakers email address: [e-mail]

[bildooreilly]

How many more americans are going to be "sacrificed" by the satanists at the Pentagram? Do you really think we're a "Christian country"? I'm a Christian and I sure don't think so... first of all we have the illuminati logo and Novus Ordo Seclorum or "New Secular Age" on the back of our dollar bill... and it says "In God We Trust" let me tell you folks, their god isn't my God. Then lets just take a look at a few other things like the Washington Monument, which is an egyptian obelisk, this represents nimrods ***, Nimrod built the tower of babel. Then if you look over on the other side of the dollar bill you'll see 13 stars forming the Hexagram (what they call the "star of david"... well if you go look into some satanic black magic you'll find their main symbols that they invoke and banish demons with are the 5 pointed star and the Hexagram. Which is why we see this stuff everywhere... Now lets look at W himself, he goes by W but it isn't really a double U, it's a double V, even my local tv station shows their W like a double V. In Hebrew the V = 6 VV = 66 the number of what the kaballists call their "great work" which is basically creating a luciferian world on earth. This is why they have such a big deal about Route 66, and Phillips 66 etc etc. Hitler was into the same satanic *** he took it a step further with his Volkswagon logo, I think you can all add up what VW equals out to in their system. Do you really think these cult leaders have our better interests in mind?