Army Extends Tours For Active Duty Troops
Gates: Increase In Soldiers' Tours From 12 Months To 15 Will Meet Troop Demands In Iraq, Afghanistan
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Play CBS Video Video Longer Deployments For Troops Defense Secretary Robert Gates extended active Army troops' stay from 12 to 15 months as a result of short supply. The White House is also having trouble finding a 'War Czar.' David Martin reports.
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Video Extended Duty Plan Unveiled Defense Secretary Robert Gates unveiled a new policy that will keep active duty Army soliders in Iraq and Afghanistan deployed for three extra months. Susan Roberts reports.
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Video Bush: Clock Ticking In Iraq CBS News RAW: Speaking at the American Foreign Legion in Virginia, President Bush said progress in Iraq is hindered by Democrats' refusal to pass a war funding bill he will sign.
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A U.S. soldier with the 1st Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Batallion, 9th Regiment B troop, patrols a street separating a Shiite and a Sunni Muslim stronghold, a few blocks from Baghdad's Haifa Street, March 29, 2007. (Getty Images/Patrick Baz)
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Interactive Iraq: 4 Years Later The conflict wears on as the nation struggles to rebuild.
Gates said that without making 15 months the standard tour length in place of the current 12, he would have been forced to send five active-duty Army brigades to Iraq before they completed their one year at home.
"I think it is fair to all soldiers that all share the burden equally," he said.
Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq watcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Gates faced little choice, with the strains already on the Army and no certainty about when the war might end.
"You've got to do it," Cordesman said of the tour extensions, if the president's plan is to have a chance to succeed.
The longer tours do not apply to the National Guard or Reserve, nor to the Marines, who comprise about 25,000 of the 145,000 troops in Iraq. The Marines are sticking to their standard seven-month tours, with an average of seven months at home between tours, although some units have had their tours lengthened recently.
Gen. Peter Pace, the Joint Chiefs chairman who appeared at the news conference with Gates, acknowledged that longer tours in Iraq and Afghanistan make life harder for many soldiers.
"Is it an additional strain to go from 12 months to 15 months? Of course it is," Pace said. "Is it in combat and therefore even more difficult? Of course it is. And that's why the entire nation should be thankful that we have such incredible young men and women who, knowing that, who volunteer to serve this nation in a time of great need."
In an indication of the Pentagon's concern about how hard the news would hit Army families, Gates angrily denounced a news leak of his announcement. "I can't tell you how angry it makes many of us" that the leak denied the Army the ability to give families 48 hours notice, as planned, Gates told reporters.
"This policy is a difficult but necessary interim step," Gates said, adding that the goal is to eventually return to 12 months as the standard length of tour in Iraq and Afghanistan. As recently as February, senior Army leaders were telling soldiers they remained hopeful that tour lengths could be shortened to nine months or six months.
Gates said the new policy seeks to ensure that all active-duty Army units get at least 12 months at home between deployments.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 193 CommentsPeople where I work, who use to go around bragging they help put a Repub. in office and what GREAT changes were going to be made, are no longer heard from. They hang their heads low when people at the breakroom start talking about what a blunder has been made by this adminisration and how dishonest it been. People who put him in--are you proud now? If you are--go to Iraq and trade places with our men and women. See how it feels to have to sleep with one eye open and a gun at your fingertips. Be frightened if any cars come down the road or even a woman or child walking; they could have bombs on them. Would our President be willing to spend the rest of the war over there with the common soldier and live as they do?
This is NOT supporting our troops!!
This is using them as cannon fodder for their NeoCon imperial War, based on LIES. A needless War, a horrific War that has left us less safe, 3,200 dead troops (that is NOT how you "support the troops"), $600 Billion wasted, a couple hundred thousand dead Iraqis.
When will America stand up and demand impeachment and JAIL for these Murderous Thugs - Cheney and Bush?!
Take the coffins of our dead soldiers and line them up end to end and they will go on and on for 4 miles! Think about it next time you are driving along the highway. For FOUR MILES imagine the coffins rushing past you, each with grieving families, fatherless kids.
BUSH AND CHENEY belon in JAIL for LYING us into this Disaster.
Worst American President EVER? DUH! Throw him and Cheney in JAIL where they belong.
Here's what going to happen: At some point the U.S. will announce that the Iraqis are ready to fend to themselves, declare "victory", redeploy (as opposed to withdraw) the troops, and wash their hands clean. The Iraq gov't takes another year or so to collapse, at which point the U.S. will try to blame the Iraqis for their failure.
Just like Vietnam.
Thanks for the email addresses!
If you think Americas sacrifice is worth it contact your ELECTED OFFICIAL and tell them http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
Th
e House Speakers email address: AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov
info@go
p.com Here is the Republican Party email address too!
democraticparty@democrats.org Here is the Democratic Party email address also!
It is not anti Semitic to believe there are millions of other good people in the Middle East with valid concerns!
Even Eisenhower had problems with Israeli groups but he did not let them buy him!
READ AS THEY BRAG ABOUT THEIR INFLUENCE ON OUR GOVERNMENT!
http://www.aipac.org/forms/join_aipacClubs.htm
Founded in 1953 by Isaiah L. "Si" Kenen, AIPAC's original name was the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs. According to UCLA political science professor and author, Steven Spiegel, "the tension between the Eisenhower administration and Israeli supporters was so acute that there were rumors that the administration would investigate the American Zionist Council. Therefore, an independent lobbying committee was formed, which years later was renamed [AIPAC]." [SPIEGEL, p. 52].[citation needed] Today, AIPAC has over 100,000 members.[1]
Activities and stated goals
AIPAC's stated purpose is to lobby the Congress of the United States on issues and legislation "to ensure that the U.S.-Israel relationship is strong so that both countries can work together" to meet the challenges of "stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, fighting terrorism and achieving peace".[2] AIPAC has been effective in gaining support for Israel among members of Congress and White House administrations.
The New York Times described AIPAC on July 6, 1987 as "a major force in shaping United States policy in the Middle East."
"I don't think they've got a coherent strategy," Sheehan told me, adding "the real issue is does Cheney play in this deal?" In other words, will the "war czar" have to do daily battle with the Vice President, a battle in which the VP has all the clout?
No general, even one who is not a critic of the strategy, would want to be "war czar." Generals are used to giving orders and having them followed or else. The "war czar" would be, to use Gates' terms, "a coordinator and a facilitator," which in bureaucratic terms means he would be responsible for making all agencies pull together but would have no authority to make it happen.
He would be, in other words, a four-star nagger.
THEY MADE A MISTAKE IN WHAT WAS SAID.
HE WOULD BE, IN OTHER WORDS, A FOUR-STAR
N/I/G/G/E/R/!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!
HE WAS JUST BEING POLITAIL CORRECT.. NO ONE WANT TO SAY THE TRUTH..I WILL....
AND ITS TIME THAT ALL OUR MEDIA START REPORTING THIS....
They said it would be the "withholding of funds that would extend the tours of duty" but now they ORDER extended tours.
The Bushies have decimated our military! They have weakened us.
IMPEACH NOW!
SO I HAVE TRYED AND STILL TRYING TO HELP OUR TROOPS GET OUT OF THIS..
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