The pressure's on ('surge' of combat troops)

[cal04]

The Bush administration has begun implementing its 'surge' of combat troops in Iraq. Washington correspondent Geoff Elliott reports the strains are showing

SOLDIERS of the US army's third infantry division began flying out from Fort Stewart in Georgia mid-week for Iraq. Departure came on the eve of President George W. Bush's speech in which he announced what all the soldiers knew already - they were part of a new escalation of the war.

Some soldiers, on their first tour, were nervous or elated while others, on their second or third deployment to Iraq in four years, were showing signs of emotional fatigue.

"I hope it's the last one," says staff sergeant Harold Hensel, 30, of New York State, on his second tour. Hugging his pregnant wife, who is due in May, Hensel added resignedly: "I was hoping the first one was the last one. But duty calls."

The division, comprising 19,000 troops, led the charge into Baghdad during the 2003 invasion. It's the first army division to be tapped for a third deployment to the war. Barely a year has passed since its soldiers returned from their last year-long rotation.

The Iraq War has put enormous strains on the US military. Soldiers are wrung out. Normally they are meant to serve for one year in a war zone and return to home base for at least two.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21050347-601,00.html

[necso]

1. "Talking" in terms of

"active combat brigades" provides important perspective.