Report: Same soldiers keep going back to Iraq

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After five years of war, one-quarter of U.S. Army combat brigades have served at least three deployments in either Iraq or Afghanistan, a report released Tuesday said.

The 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, based in Fort Drum, N.Y., and a brigade attached to the North Carolina-based 82nd Airborne Division, have each served more than four deployments, according to the report by the Center for American Progress.

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"What's going to happen is that you will be sending more and more units over without the proper training or rest time, they won't have enough equipment, and you're depleting the strategic reserve," said Lawrence Korb, an author of the report.

Nine of the brigades were sent back to the combat with less than one year at home, even though Army policy stated that two years must elapse before a new deployment, the report said. Ten brigades were deployed for more than one year -- more than the maximum length previously allowed by the Pentagon. And 10 had their deployments extended while they were overseas.

On Friday, Arnold Punaro, the chairman of the Commission on National Guard and Reserves, said, "We can't sustain the course we're on."


http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liiraq0307,0,1452319.story?coll=ny-top-headlines

[Erika]

1. Recycled tired warriors

W is beating the hell out of our troops.

[Skittles]

2. yes

the entries at anysoldier.com include many on their 3rd or 4th deployment

[Erika]

3. Why should W's war be borne on their shoulders?

This should end the volunteer army except for those kids who would trade their lives for a chance at educational benefits. The rich kids wouldn't give it a thought.

[Skittles]

5. I knew no weathly peers when I was enlisted

no indeed

[Erika]

4. Maybe the Bush kids might volunteer

Nah, they got better things to do with their lives. They don't have to worry about education $. Maybe the brats will just sit back and write books. Working for a living is nothing they have ever worried about.

[ninkasi]

6. They don't care

As far back as 2004, Rumsfeld equated troops with being nothing but pieces of equipment. See this, from Common Dreams

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0421-02.htm

From the "Support the Troops" gang, this is what he had to say

<snip>

DEFENSE Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was offensive enough when he intimated last week that US troops were as interchangeable as automotive factory parts. Irritated at a question from a reporter about why 20,000 American troops had to stay 90 days longer than expected in Iraq, he said: "Oh, come on. People are fungible. You can have them here or there."

See, our troops are like any other interchangeable object, they can be used here, or there, or whatever. Surely people didn't expect AWOL Bush, or "five deferments" Cheney, to consider them anything but objects?

They are grinding these men and women into the sand.I really believe that they prefer deaths to injuries, because it's cheaper for them if troops die, rather than coming back severely wounded, which means, horror of horrors, they suck up money that could otherwise be used to lard on more fat for the right-wing Bush/Cheney cronies.

That's one of the many reasons I'm for impeachment now. How can we continue to let our brothers and sisters die in a war of choice that never should have been? How can we ask their families to sacrifice more and more, while the president's advice to the American people is to go shopping. When Condi tried on shoes while NOLA and the Gulf Coast drowned, she was shopping, so I guess she felt she was being patriotic that way.