Advantage Obama: Army must cut combat tours

[zzzz]

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[zzzz]

While I believe they thought they would find WMD, I also believe that was a pretense for the invasion. Underlying it was the mistaken notion that Iraq would make a fine example of an arab democracy.

 

[JohnnyM]

TW is so wrong it's not worth debating the war with him.

 

[Austintxusa]

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[Nivek]

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[JohnnyM]

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[KingBobo81]

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[washparkhorn]

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[El_Guapo]

Tom Wingo is exactly right and I'll add that you can't know whether Iraq was a mistake until we actually know how things turn out. It's not over yet and your incessant insistence on failure even in the face of clear and significant progress thankfully doesn't make it so.

 

[EuroHorn]

He wants to reduce the length of tours. That has nothing to do with the withdrawal of troops. So I don't know why the OP refers to this as advantage Obama.

 

[HornsInTheHouse]

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[Hornin Hong Kong]

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[dognduckhorn]

Regardless of how fast or much you feel that the Army ought to be reduced or withdrawn from Iraq/ redeployed to Afghanistan, etc., I think that the comment and concern is telling for another reason, and that is that the constant deployment and redeployment of our volunteer Army, and the constant dehabilitation of the equipment in the Army is beginning to destroy the Army. We are just now beginning to see the effects of this cycle of extended tours and redeployments on the Army, and, from what I am seeing, it is not good. Suicide rates are going up, divorce rates are going up. In a country where the vast majority of us do, regardless of how we feel about the mission that the policy makers and mission creators sent them on, at least pay lip service to the slogan "Support the troops", I think we need to pay attention to what this extended conflict is doing to our troops and to the Army in general.

We need an Army. Whatever other illusions people entertain, we absolutely need a functional, efficient military force. What I'm afraid we are seeing here are the insidious effects of the extended tours and repeat tours on the morale and efficiency of the army itself. And that, my friends, is cause for worry regardless of your political affiliation.

 

[EuroHorn]

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[Hornin Hong Kong]

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[EuroHorn]

Ok, HIHK, I see your point and I guess I should have read the entire article. Here is an excerpt from the article which supports that.

"He said he anticipates the service can cut combat tours from 15 months to 12 months this summer, as long as the president reduces the number of active-duty Army brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan to 15 units by July, as planned.

The committee chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., pressed Casey on whether he could keep tour lengths at 12 months if Bush decides to suspend the troop reductions after reaching 15 brigades in July"

To me the funny thing is that Bush is already planning on reducing troops, so I still don't see how this is advantage Obama?

 

[Fievel121]

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[Hornin Hong Kong]

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[Macanudo]

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[dognduckhorn]

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[Hornin Hong Kong]

It's not even debateable - suporting an overseas force without increasing the size of the military wears it down.

Espcially in a backwards ******** like the gulf/Iraq.

It's not like you got deployed to Ramstein.