Guard Units Could Be Redeployed To Iraq

Pentagon To Alert Thousands In National Guard For Second Tours Of Duty In 2008

(AP)  Several National Guard brigades are expected to be notified soon that they could be sent to Iraq around the first of next year, according to a senior Defense Department official.

If their assignment to Iraq is ultimately approved by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, it would be the first time full Guard combat brigades have been sent back to Iraq for second tours.

A brigade is roughly 3,500 troops.

The units would serve as replacement forces in the regular unit rotation for the war and would not be connected to the recent military buildup for security operations in Baghdad. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to sign the notices alerting the Guard troops shortly, said the official, who requested anonymity because the information has not yet been released.

"You will start to see reserve component forces coming back into the rotation," said the official, adding that the notices are being done now in order to give the Guard units more time to prepare.

Guard officials told The Associated Press in February that they had contingency plans to send at least two Guard combat brigades back to Iraq in 2008 for their second yearlong tour of duty.

While it is not clear yet which units would be alerted, they probably would include brigades that were among the first to go to Iraq early in the war.

Smaller units and individual troops from the Guard already have returned to Iraq for longer periods, and some active duty units have served multiple tours.

The troop alerts come as President Bush and Congress wrestle over legislation that would set timelines for troop withdrawals from Iraq.

Nearly two months ago, Mr. Bush asked for more than $100 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. Congress has approved the money, but the Senate added a nonbinding provision calling for most U.S. combat troops to be out of Iraq by March 31, 2008. The House version demands a September 2008 withdrawal. President Bush has vowed to veto any legislation that includes such deadlines.

According to defense and Guard officials, the first Guard units could go as early as late December with others to follow during the next six months. They would be deployed only if commanders in Iraq determined the troops were needed.

About 270,000 of the more than 347,000 Army Guard soldiers have served in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

Gates said Thursday that the Pentagon's goal is to give reserve units five years at home for every year deployed. Earlier this year he announced that the reserves will now deploy as full units, and they will go for 12 months at a time.

Guard units currently serve about 18 months for each tour of duty, including six months of training.

But Gates told Pentagon reporters that there will be a "transition period during which those guidelines would be violated and in which we would be unable, because of the troops commitments in Afghanistan and in Iraq, to meet those goals."

That transition period, he said, could last a year or two.

[iceman_1960]

"While it is not clear yet which units would be alerted, they would likely include brigades that were among the first to go to Iraq early in the war. Some of those include brigades from North Carolina, Florida, Arkansas and Indiana."

Why haven't Iraqi units taken over all the fighting by now ?

Short answer: they were given all the time in the world to get ready.

People don't get difficult tasks done without a deadline. They procrastinate. It's human nature.

Bush is too dumb to realize that.

[micma-2009]

Bush will not stop until he's thrown out or he bankrupts the country. Whichever one comes first.

[iceman_1960]

Currently 330k trained ISF.
Posted by badaxmofo

That's more than enough.

Bring US troops home and let Iraqis fight for Iraqi Freedom.

That freedom won't endure in a Muslim land if a lot of Christian foreigners secure it.

[iceman_1960]

"We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves."

Lyndon Baines Johnson

(He later went back on his word and was driven from office)

[pussylib]

I dont like all this fighting. I was just telling Bruce that we should contact Sean Penn and put together a peace delegation to go to Iraq.

If we could just join hands as brothers and sisters we could end all this bad fighting.

We as Americans were asking for 911 with our high standard of living and the republicans refusal to back down to the terrorists.

Im so Ashamed of myself when i think of everything I have i can take a dump and use soft toilet paper as those In the Arab middle east use their hands I mean thats just not sanitary.

I think we should just surrender to the terrorists since we cant win. It would save money and save lives. Surely we can negotiate with the very reasonable peoples of the middle east?

We should send flowers not bombs.

[harp1963]

http://www.post-gazette.com/robrogers/

[goldesprit]

Robert Gates will pass. Kick him out.

This is another trial baloon to see if we will let this administration push the American people around and dictate that we will remain at war.

IMPEACH THIS PRESIDENT--and nullify his plans to widen the war for his cronies monetary gain.

[goldesprit]

Robert Gates is simply queing up for a good job advising some company that sells tanks after hes done *** everybody.

[iceman_1960]

Ice - I agree - but you know and I know, we'll have troops in Iraq for years to come a la South Korea. The difference now is, rather than relying on the Saudis and all their bull shi'ite, we have our own mofos stationed in Iraq.
Posted by badaxmofo at 08:59 PM : Apr 05, 2007

The difference is, in South Korea we have the ROKs, the South Korean Army, which is tough and dedicated. Analogies between Iraq and South Korea amount to trying to refight the last war. It won't work.

Who is the Iraqi Syngman Rhee ? There isn't a gigantic leader of free Iraq like that. Rhee, for all his shortcomings, was a decisive and brilliant leader of South Korea in the Korean War.

The ROKs fought very hard in the Korean War. They lost early battles to the North because they had no antitank weapons to use against tanks, and many of them tied explosives to themselves and threw their bodies at the tanks in a suicide attack.

And in Korea there is the DMZ, a definite geographic division between one side and the other. There is nothing at all like that in Iraq.

There aren't many Muslim extremists in Korea.

The Democrats are not going to allow an extended deployment of a large number of American troops in a situation of sectarian anarchy. That's a fact. The American people are with them on that.

The Iraqis will win this for democracy, if it's won at all. Don't hold your breath.

badaxmofo wrote:

"Ice - I agree - but you know and I know, we'll have troops in Iraq for years to come a la South Korea. The difference now is, rather than relying on the Saudis and all their bull shi'ite, we have our own mofos stationed in Iraq."

Have you enlisted yet?

[goldesprit]

Robert Gates will certainly share the administrations track record in predicting what will happen in war scenarios.

ZIP!

Robert Gates will pass. Kick him out.

This is another trial baloon to see if we will let this administration push the American people around and dictate that we will remain at war.

IMPEACH THIS PRESIDENT

[iceman_1960]

Any resemblance between Iraq and South Korea is purely coincidental.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we have fewer than 40,000 troops in Korea. You never hear about them getting killed in suicide attacks by Korean insurgents.

Must be a completely different situation over there today.

[iceman_1960]

"I dont like all this fighting. I was just telling Bruce that we should contact Sean Penn and put together a peace delegation to go to Iraq."

Penn went over to Iraq before the war, came back, and said there were no WMDs over there.

Dubya should have listened to him.

After all, he used to be married to Madonna. That's more than Bush can say.

[walt1944-2009]

At the end of last year, King George promised 21,500 more troops and that's all. He has his 21,500 soldiers and now he is adding 12,000 more without asking anyone because HE is Commander In Chief! If I were Congress, when I got back from Easter recess, I'd be hopping mad at Bush for lying to Congress and the American people, and looking, not just at cutting off funding for the war IMMEDIATELY, but also going actively after not just Gonzalez, but Rove, Rice, and all the rest of the "Bushies" polluting the White House. Plus it would be time to start impeachment proceedings and line up some military muscle to back it up because I am sure he wouldn't go quietly. Congress would have 70% of the American people on their side and thirsting for George Bush's hide!

[cruzn66]

Why is it, that when people try to talk about the U.S. pulling out of Iraq, that some morons call it surrendering? I don't think that seeking a political solution requiring intelligence, rather than cowboy-up, bullheaded, macho military might, is a form of surrender. If that is the case, then we have surrendered in every conflict that we have been engaged in since WWII. And how is continued support of an Iraqi government which has shown no ability to stand on its on merits a form of victory? How can you surrender if its not even your country that you are defending? I'm still seeking proof that any Iraqis were involved in 9/11. The only thing we are losing in Iraq is American lives right now. And if you buy into the "they'll be fighting on the streets of America", then you obviously underestimate the true power of Americans to protect themselves. Do a better job of protecting our own borders and we won't have to worry about outside threats.

[iceman_1960]

"Who is the Iraqi Syngman Rhee ?"

Good luck finding twenty Iraqi leaders put together that the late Syngman Rhee couldn't have overshadowed.

How many war supporters could even name the Iraq government leader with looking the name up ?

[sparky19642]

Why is it that most Americans have a short memory. In an attempt to refresh:

Japan bombs Pearl harbor. War ensues. American forces occupy Japan. Government handed over to Japanese people. American presence remains in country.

Same set of circumstances for Germany....

When we make a strategic decision to occupy a country...we in fact have adopted them. We can debate the right or wrong until we are blue in the face. Facts are facts. We occupied...We now have the responsibility to see this through and give the Iraqi people a CHANCE to grow strong, establish a system of goverment were all voices are heard...and gain the means to stand on their own in the international community. THEY deserve the right to grow and mature as a country. They are our COLLECTIVE responsibility until they reach a point where they can stand on their own two feet. We will have to have a military presence there until that happens. Unfortunately a free, democratic society in that part of the world is something neighboring countries and governments do not...and will not...support (Iran and Syria come immediately to mind). We as Americans need to steel ourselves for the task we face and embrace this unique opportunity.

[iceman_1960]

I remember it differently.

Japan bombs Pearl harbor. War ensues. American forces occupy Italy. Government handed over to Italian people.

Italian insurgents launch widespread attacks on American forces as part of a savage sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shiite Italians.

Five years later, with Rome sinking in anarchy, Truman steels the American people.

"There will be good days and bad days in Italy," he warns. "But I'm seeing many hopeful signs."

[iceman_1960]

"If we pull out of Italy, we risk another Pearl Harbor" - Harry Truman.

[iceman_1960]

There is ZERO comparison between Iraq now, and Germany and Japan in the 1940s.

ZERO comparison.

No analogy at all. And it defames the memory of great men like Generals Eisenhower and Bradley to sneak Dubya into their company.

Dubya is contunuing the war to save face (his own.) That's his one and only objective in Iraq.

The American people know that.

The forces of Bush-aria are just spitting in the wind when they throw idiotic analogies out, to rescue a failed policy that is way beyond rescue.

[petesis]

Send em. They signed on the dotted line. And our freedoms are at stake. The Arab world is highly peofed at us and if we do not continue to fight them over there they will come over here where we will surely be like lambs to the slaughter. Amen in his holy name.

Oh save us George W.

[elz523]

D/a/m/n you George Bush for getting our country in this mess and for the lives of our brave soldiers who are dying in this war.

[elz523]

Well said Iceman. Unfortunately history and logic are lost on the cons putting this garbage out.

[elz523]

I remember Vietnam and what I remember is a war where there was constant escalation and victory was always around the corner. The theories then were that we needed just a few thousand more troops and if we didn't get them there, the dominoes would fall and eventually you would have a Vietcong in your backyard. At one point we had over 500,000 troops there. Over 50,000 Americans killed, unknown Vietnamese lives (but in the millions for sure).

What happened? We pulled out when we realized the only way to save South Vietnam was to kill everyone in it and since that was unacceptable at the time, we did the only thing we could. I'm unconvinced we will make as sane of a decision this time.

Guess what? We're now trading with Vietnam.

[harp1963]

As Saint Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, points out in a press interview: %u201CA university should not form men and women who will egoistically consume the benefits they have achieved through their studies. Rather it should prepare students for a life of generous help to their neighbour, of Christian charity%u201D (St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, Conversations with Msgr. Escriva, n0. 74)

[petesis]

As a Christian I see it as inevitable that we must either wipe out the muslim hordes or they will wipe us out. And in the name of the Prince of Peace we must nuke them first. In his holy name of course.

[duffyn]

Nuke them first. Not very good idea. For once, I think we have someone with worse ideas than bush. And a "christian" no less. Religion is something I don't approve of and I think most of you can see why. It seems to be the root of more bad feelings and war. Not to mention pedophiles and perverts.

[randalds]

As a Christian I see it as inevitable that we must either wipe out the muslim hordes or they will wipe us out. And in the name of the Prince of Peace we must nuke them first. In his holy name of course.
Posted by Petesis at 10:47 PM : Apr 05, 2007

Is that you singingrick? Sure sounds like you. lol!

[duffyn]

Actually in rereading "nuke them first" post - I see it is supposed to be a joke. heh heh kinda funny actually. I really think in the my words "let's all be friends" and don't forget Rodney King - "Why can't we all just get along"?? Ohhh, I forgot, we need that oil and so do others.....

[feelfree1]

Re: "Iraq Escalation May Get Bigger"

Bigger eh?

655,000+ dead Iraqis, 3200 dead U.S. soldiers, ttillions of dollars in resulting long-term financial obligations...how big are we talkin'?

The Bush Bulge has yielded some 2800 dead Iraqis in the month of March alone. Do you think we can exceed that toll in April?

[randalds]

More targets, more cannon fodder, more of our soldiers to die and get wounded for nothing. Sad and sick.

[randalds]

Posted by sparky19642 at 09:48 PM : Apr 05, 2007

Bush made a decision to invade and occupy Iraq and lied the congress and most of the American people into going along with it. Bush used our troops as a weapon to smash Iraq and to slaughter tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Bush occupied Iraq and turned the government over to the Iraqi people (those that don't get blown up ever time they try to sneak out for food or water. Bush owns Iraq. It's his responsibility, not Americas. They are his collective responsibility. He broke it. Let him fix it. But let him fix it without another drop of our troops blood being wasted.

[searingtruth]

"And his denial was death, for so many who deserved to live."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[tbweb]

The Iraq war will be with Americans until President Bush leaves office. Its the length of this war with no end in sight thats exposing raw nerves and making people angry. Already its one of the longest wars in American history. Its important to pick an American President very carefully and I think the American people have learned that lesson. The Office of the American President is very powerful and in the wrong hands can be very destructive. This enormous power is on display in the fact that 70% of the American people oppose the war in Iraq, the Congress is controlled by the Democrats, people are screaming for the troops to come home and the Iraq war to end, yet one Office, one person can keep it going on and even escalate it! Maybe the powers of the Office of the American President need to be revisited and revised because I don't think this kind of power, with no off switch was intended.

[torocaca]

"(He [Johnsonn] later went back on his word and was driven from office)" Posted by Iceman_1960

Unfortunately he wasn't driven from office, he simply didn't seek re-election. Something most of us wish Bush had done in 2004.

[inventagod]

The CON men in Washingtoon are slimy and murderous.
This is the biggest wad of refuse that has ever slithered into power in this country.
True Republicans should pray for forgiveness, and the Democrats must impeach the whole administration.
There can be no turning back, indictments and prison for all these thugs.

[torocaca]

badaxmofo wrote: "Ice - I agree - but you know and I know, we'll have troops in Iraq for years to come a la South Korea. The difference now is, rather than relying on the Saudis and all their bull shi'ite, we have our own mofos stationed in Iraq."

mcdazz wrote "Have you enlisted yet?"

badassmofo isn't going anywhere dangerous. He's too busy making the big bucks off the industries that profit from the war.

Actually "serving" his country is against his personal values.

[randalds]

badassmofo isn't going anywhere dangerous. He's too busy making the big bucks off the industries that profit from the war.

Actually "serving" his country is against his personal values.

Posted by torocaca at 12:23 AM : Apr 06, 2007

Yeah, he values his cowardly as*s more then the country he claims to support. He's all mouth like most of the Bush war cheerleaders here. All mouth and yellow-bellied.

[shingles1]

The first paragraph of a front page article in tomorrow's Post:

Captured Iraqi documents and intelligence interrogations of Saddam Hussein and two former aides "all confirmed" that Hussein's regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a declassified Defense Department report released yesterday.



I guess now the wingnuts will have to start claiming that the Defense Department is filled with liberals and terrorist sympathizers.

[searingtruth]

"... Maybe the powers of the Office of the American President need to be revisited and revised because I don't think this kind of power, with no off switch was intended."
tbweb


Fellow patriot tbweb, unfortunately our problem is not with the Constitution, it is with those we elected to uphold and defend it.

One party, the Republicans, toiled for over three decades to subvert it. Another party, the Democrats, apathetically allowed its despoilment.

But our founding fathers always intended for the American people to be the ultimate arbiters and defenders of our Constitution.

And while we, as so many times before, have been slow to rise, we have once again awakened and will restore our Constitution and rule of law to this land, and, at least for awhile, defend it with newfound vigilance.
ST


"No compact among men... can be pronounced everlasting and inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other."
George Washington, draft of First Inaugural Address, April 1789

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[torocaca]

"Robert Gates is simply queing up for a good job advising some company that sells tanks after hes done *** everybody." Posted by goldesprit

He's already done that; he worked for SAIC, a very large defense contractor that does $billion$ worth of government business.

Gates also had a shady role in Iran/Contra. He was also faulted (as CIA director) for failing to accurately determine the decline and disintegration of the Soviet Union.

It's "alleged that Gates passed intelligence to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. No big deal; Reagan gave Iraq WMD to kill Iranians, and gave Iran arms (Iran/Contra) to kill Iraqis.

Good job, Brownie, er Gates!

[tbweb]

--SearingTruth

My problem with President Bush or any elected official is when they don't express the will of the American people, but instead express their own personal will. In the case of President Bush, no one is trying to be Commander In Chief, no one is trying to mico manange the Iraqi or Afghan wars, instead, Americans by 70% are asking the President to figure out a way to end the Iraq war and bring our troops home. Instead of figuring out how to end the Iraq war and obey the will of the American people, President Bush is expressing his own personal will and moving forward and even escalating the war, this is the problem! Whether President agrees or not, the American people have spoken and he is ignoring them!

[searingtruth]

"True Republicans should pray for forgiveness, and the Democrats must impeach the whole administration.
There can be no turning back, indictments and prison for all these thugs."
inventagod


Indeed fellow patriot inventagod.
ST


"The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men."
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 21, 1787

"An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others."
James Madison, Federalist No. 58, 1788

"They destroyed with reckless abandon, and then plead for mercy."
SearingTruth

"America is the mountain, tyranny the abyss."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[nothappyatall]

What part of the November elections demanding a CHANGE doesn't this dam BUSH regime GET?
We don't want MORE troops sent over there is a year, we want all of them home IN a year!

[searingtruth]

"What part of the November elections demanding a CHANGE doesn't this dam BUSH regime GET?
We don't want MORE troops sent over there is a year, we want all of them home IN a year!"
newster1


I would actually like them all home tomorrow patriot newster1.

The only difference between withdrawal now, and withdrawal later, is the number of dead to be added to those sacrificed, for nothing.
ST


"It was my flesh to defend my flesh. Not the fever of ambition, conquest, and greed."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[tuckerndfw]

Bush's complaints about dictators who do not represent the people are hollow.

Tell me again, Mr. Bush, why did US taxpayers spend one trillion dollars (most of which went to you and your cronies) to depose Saddam Hussein?

Tell me again, Mr. Bush, why did you murder tens of thousands of people, including over 3,000 US soldiers, to impose your version of "democracy" on the Iraqi people?

They already had your version of "democracy" in Saddam Hussein.

It is time for impeachment. Bush is unfit to be president.

[mh4cbs1]

Do you have ANY IDEA just how much death and destruction Bush and Cheney are RESPONSIBLE for?

Consider our 3,250 dead troops and 800 dead US mercenary contractors. If you lined up their coffins along the side of a road they would stretch for 5 MILES. Think about that next time you are driving along the highway, with the coffins rushing past you at 60 miles/hr for 5 minutes. Think about the grieving families at the side of each coffin, think about the fatherless kids.

Drive for another couple HUNDRED miles and you get the idea on how many Iraqis are dead from the Bush War of Terror.

When will the Cheney/Bush murderous thugs be sent to JAIL for DELIBERATELY LYING us into this needless, horrific War??

JAIL BUSH
JAIL CHENEY
THEY BELONG IN JAIL for their CRIMES!

[searingtruth]

...
President Bush and Vice President Cheney have committed high treason against the United States of America and must be impeached and removed from office according to the rules and laws set forth in our Constitution.

They have claimed that they are no longer subject to the authority of the judicial or legislative branches of our government, and may ignore any law they wish at anytime. They have even claimed that the President may "sign" a law, while simultaneously signing another statement claiming he is free to ignore it. They have established a network of unconstitutional secret prisons, where both foreign and domestic citizens who have been illegally abducted are sent indeterminately, without charge or representation. Some have been tortured, and some have even been murdered. They have single handedly erased our sacred and traditional right to privacy by claiming they may place anyone they wish under surveillance at any time, even going so far as to specifically claim they may ignore FISA laws. They have started an illegal preemptive war that has needlessly taken the lives of more than 3,000 of our bravest and most noble fighting men and women.

And this is just the short list. Never before has America been faced with such an insidious enemy with more contempt for our Constitution and our American way of life, and these enemies occupy the highest levels of our own government.
...

Excerpt from ST's blog
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[mrwhitey3]

Why does everyone focus on Bush? He was powerless without congress and if you think congress was "duped" into a war, you didn't hear Dennis Kucinich on CSPAN say "every member of congress had signed a secrecy agreement regarding 911 except me".

RE-ELECT NOBODY and if they cook another election, we have a right and a responsibility to do whatever is necessary to bring these traitors that are blackmailed by Israel to justice. We should start with the zionist controlled press now.

[mrwhitey3]

Maybe our troops should go to Washington and drain that pond of all the scum instead of killing Iraqis defending their country from an occupying force. But then, most of these soldiers are so stupid as a result of the methanol that has been slipped into 200 food products in the form of aspartame, many still think Iraq had something to do with 911. Not that soldiers do their own thinking in the first place.
http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/fraud.htm

They put MSG in your food to make you fat so you don't notice that everyone has the shakes from the methanol poisoning.

This war started with "Operation Iraqi Liberation." an acronym for OIL - Again, everyone is too stupid to see that. WAKE UP OR DIE!