WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Army has plans to keep the current level of soldiers in Iraq through 2010, the top Army officer said Wednesday, a later date than Bush administration or Pentagon officials have mentioned thus far.
The Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, cautioned against reading too much into the planning, saying troops levels could be adjusted to actual conditions in Iraq. He said it is easier to hold back forces scheduled to go there than to prepare and deploy units at the last minute.
"This is not a prediction that things are going poorly or better," Schoomaker told reporters. "It's just that I have to have enough ammo in the magazine that I can continue to shoot as long as they want us to shoot."
You've got to love Schoomaker's comment here--he's got enough ammo in the magazine to shoot Iraqi insurgents until 2010. So General, what happens after 2010 when the magazine is empty? Fixed bayonets?
Of course, Schoomaker's timing here is couldn't be any better here. According to the WaPost article:
Schoomaker's comments come less than four weeks before congressional elections, in which the unpopular war in Iraq and the Bush administration's policies there are a major campaign issue.
In recent months the Army has shown signs of strain, as Pentagon officials have had to extend the Iraq deployments of two brigades in order to bolster security in Baghdad and allow units heading into the country to have at least one year at home before redeploying.
Schoomaker said he has received no new guidance from commanders in Iraq as to when the U.S. will be able to begin reducing the number of troops there. Last year officials had hoped to be down to about 100,000 by the end of this year, but escalating violence and sectarian tensions have prompted military leaders to increase forces.
He also said the Army will have to rely on the National Guard and Reserves to maintain the current level of deployments. When asked about concerns that reserve units are struggling to get the training and equipment they need before going back to Iraq, Schoomaker said that no troops would be sent into war without needed resources.
You just have to love how the Army is being politicized here by the Bush administration--keep the troops in Iraq until well after the 2008 election, but then announce this new long-term Army deployment just four weeks before the congressional midterm elections. And yet, while Schoomaker claims that the Army has to stay in Iraq until 2010, that very Army is slowly being ground up by declining enlistment numbers, the constantly extended tours of Army soldiers, and the increasing use of National Guard troops being deployed in Iraq. By 2010, there probably wont be an Army left in the U.S.
Politics as usual here.
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