Army division sees its Iraq tour extended and its casualties rise

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-06-16-iraq-extended-cover-usat_x.htm

MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq — Pfc. Ricky Bolding, 19, puts down his crutches and rolls up his pants, revealing large bandages on his calf and foot. Shrapnel is still in there, he says, and more chunks are lodged in his buttocks and back.


Bolding is one of the lucky ones from a mortar attack May 4. The attack injured 17 of Bolding's platoon, four seriously enough to be evacuated from Iraq. "Kind of hard to fathom that one mortar round can take out 17 people," says the soldier from Sturgis, S.D., who missed his high school graduation a year ago so he could enter basic training. (Related item: Photo gallery)

Bolding and the others of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, would have been home unscathed had their mission ended as scheduled in early April. The company had not sustained a single combat injury before then. Now they've got more than two dozen Purple Hearts they'd rather not have. One soldier is dead, another blinded, and several face long hospitalizations, mostly from mortar attacks and a car bombing.

The 1st Armored Division, which arrived in Baghdad in the first week of May 2003, spent most of the past year in and around the Iraqi capital. Then, just as the division's 20,000 troops were about to head home, they were ordered to race south to counter the bloody insurgency of renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia. The Pentagon extended the division's tour by 90 days, until mid-July

[phantom power]

1. what is the Pentagon going to do?

As I understand it, they are operating at a net loss of enlisted. Iraq needs more troops (assuming we stay), not fewer. They can keep those poor people over there, but at some point they'll break down, if they aren't killed.

[lectrobyte]

2. does it feel drafty in here, or is it just me?

[phantom power]

3. I have a theory that there's a big, unpublicized battle going on

between BushCo, and sensible factions in the Pentagon who know we need a draft if we're going to stay in Iraq.

Haven't seen anything in the news (imagine that) but I'm sure it's happening.