UPDATED: Combat tours extended
I listened to SecDef Gates’ press conference. Here’s Reuters report on that conference. 15 months is a hump.
We’ve had some units do 13 months (1st Armored got extended in 2004, didn’t it?) and if memory serves some may have come close to 14 months in theater. (We’ll try to have comments back up by this weekend so if your unit was in Iraq or Afghanistan for over 13 months put up a comment with the dates of deployment.)
I suspect “the surge” is going to run well into next year. I realize Petraeus said he would evaluate the surge in August. I also know several analysts said in February “the US has six months.” The time span depends on when the clock starts ticking. I think this will take at least a year if not longer– I’d like to hear Petraeus evaluate it April or May 2008.
As for the tour extensions: I’d still rather see everybody on a seven month long tour — that’s more “rotational velocity” but the Marines have shown it works. Keep senior commands and key cadres in country for longer but rotate the major combat units on a seven month basis. (Yes, I know the counter to this is “more rotational turmoil” and “time necessary to learn the job.” Yup, there are trade-offs.)
UPDATE: The US says it has evidence Iran is providing training and weapons to Iraqi militias. Extra troops in Iraq could have additional missions…
And Senator McCain continues to soldier. Thank you, Senator.
McCain at ABC News:
“The judgment of history should be the approval we seek,” the GOP presidential hopeful said, “not the temporary favor of the latest public opinion poll.”
And:
McCain asserted that if U.S. troops withdraw prematurely, the Iraqi government will collapse, drawing in Iraq’s neighbors — Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey.
“This uncertain swirl of events could cause the region to explode and foreclose the opportunity for millions of Muslims and their children to achieve freedom,” McCain said.
“We could face a terrible choice: Watch the region burn, the price of oil escalate dramatically and our economy decline, watch the terrorists establish new base camps or send American troops back to Iraq, with the odds against our success much worse than they are today,” McCain concluded.
He added that “the potential for genocide and ethnic cleansing in Iraq is even worse” than in Rwanda if troops leave too soon, “and the potential consequence of allowing terrorists sanctuary in Iraq is another 9/11 — or worse.”
