Army: Troops to Stay in Iraq Until 2010
Pastor Dale Morgan
Oct 11, 2:17 PM EDT
*Army: Troops to Stay in Iraq Until 2010*
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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."
Even so, his comments were the latest acknowledgment by Pentagon
officials that a significant withdrawal of troops from Iraq is not
likely in the immediate future.
Currently there are 141,000 troops in Iraq, including 120,000 Army
soldiers. Those soldiers are divided among 15 Army combat brigades plus
other support units.
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.
Last month, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, Gen. John
Abizaid, said the military would likely maintain or possibly even
increase the current force levels through next spring.
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.
In separate remarks to reporters, Gen. Richard Cody, the Army vice chief
of staff, said soldiers need more than 12 months between deployments to
Iraq so they can do a full range of combat training and complete the
kinds of educational programs that enable the Army to grow a fully
mature officer corps.
"We need to reset the sergeants and send them to schools, the
lieutenants and captains and send them off, so that we don't erode and
become an Army that only can fight a counterinsurgency," Cody said. He
added that North Korea's announced nuclear test "reminds us all that we
may not just be in a counterinsurgency fight and we have to have
full-spectrum capability."
Schoomaker spoke as the U.S. military death toll in Iraq rose to at
least 2,750 since the war's start in March 2003. On Wednesday, the U.S.
command said three U.S. Marines and two soldiers were killed in fighting
there.
In another indication of the burden the Army expects to bear, Schoomaker
said he believes the Army will need $138.8 billion in 2008, nearly $40
billion more than its planned expenditures for the 2007 budget year,
which began Oct. 1. Schoomaker's proposed figure is nearly $25 billion
more than the initial amount discussed by Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld.
Schoomaker said the Army needs the money to modernize the force,
continue needed research and development programs, and keep enough
combat brigades in the field, while allowing adequate time for training
and restoring equipment between deployments.
The Bush administration is likely to release its 2008 budget in February.