Pentagon to announce massive continuation of 'surge'
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Pentag...n_of_0731.html
John Byrne and David Edwards
Published: Tuesday July 31, 2007
The Pentagon is expected to announce this morning that 20,000 troops will be rotated into Iraq at the end of this year to extend President Bush's troop "surge" through next spring, CNN reported Tuesday.
"They may have to reach down into the National Guard or Army reserve" to maintain the surge, CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr said, and may extend tours of duty to maintain the surge past the spring of 2008 in what was described as a "worst case scenario."
Military commanders began to expect earlier this year that the surge would have to be extended into next year. In an article that appeared in the Washington Post in May, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, who manages day-to-day operations in Iraq, said the surge needed to last "through the beginning of next year, for sure." Odierno noted at the time that new regulations extending tours of duty to 15 months would allow for the surge to last through spring 2008.
"These will be the replacement troops on a 15 month tour of duty, as the troops that are there finish up their tours of duty," Starr said on CNN Tuesday. "Reading between the lines, what is interesting here, is these troops will allow the Pentagon to maintain the status quo."
Starr said troop shortages will hamper efforts to maintain the increased troop presence.
"Fifteen combat brigades [will move] into Iraq in 2008, not the twenty combat brigades of the surge," she said. "It is well understood that they simply don't have enough troops to maintain that surge much past the spring of 2008."
While vague, the announcement appears to mean the Pentagon is planning to maintain the present surge level through the spring of 2008. Soon after that they will have to rotate out some troops leaving five less combat brigades -- which could spell the "end" of the "surge."
The following video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast on July 31.
Video At Source
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