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General wants EVEN MORE troops for Iraq

210 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  kate42
So, the 'surge' seems to just keep on surging....to now almost 30,000:

"The top US commander in Iraq has requested another Army brigade, on top of five already on the way, as part of the controversial "surge" of American troops designed to clamp down on sectarian violence and insurgent groups, senior Pentagon officials said today.

"The appeal -- not yet made public -- by Gen. David Petraeus for a combat aviation unit would involve between 2,500 and 3,000 more soldiers and dozens of transport helicopters and powerful gunships, said the Pentagon sources. That would bring the planned expansion of US forces so far to close to 30,000 troops.

News of the additional deployment comes about a week after President Bush announced that about 4,700 support troops will join the initial 21,500 he ordered in January. They are in addition to the estimated 130,000 troops already in Iraq.

"This is the next shoe to drop," said one senior Pentagon official closely involved in the war planning."

More here:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/wa...troops?mode=PF
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Where do they think these troops are going to come from??? They've been having recruiting problems for 4 years now. I have horrible visions of campaigns targeting illegal immigrants so that they can serve in exchange for citizenship... or Dubya trying to put through a draft. (Of course, I don't think congress would pass such a bill.)

Even Hillary is now saying that troops need to stay in Iraq beyond 2009. (To fight terrorists of course, not Iraqis.) Gee isn't that what we're supposedly doing now??? How do we account for the hundred thousand or so innocent Iraqis who've been killed. Are they all really secret terrorists??

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/...ops/index.html
Quote:

Originally Posted by umsami View Post
How do we account for the hundred thousand or so innocent Iraqis who've been killed. Are they all really secret terrorists??
It is worth pointing out that vast majority of civilian Iraqi casualties are coming at the hands of Sunni insurgents, as well as the vicious civil war that is wrecking the country.

The chief role for U.S. and coalition troops now in Iraq is primarily being armed referees in a civil war that has caused not only most of the carnage we read about but also the massive exodus of Iraqis, either out of their neighborhoods and to like-minded sectarian communities or to Syria, Jordan etc.
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BTW, this thread should not be confused with this one.....

Pentagon deploys 2,200 more troops to Baghdad
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=630787
In addition, the need for more troops in support of this escalation than Dubya Inc. claimed was sussed out a while ago.....

Surge could cost triple Bush projection, CBO says
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...40&postcount=3
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