[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
War, War, War See other War, War, War Articles Title: Pentagon Extends Tours for 82nd Airborne Troops in Afghanistan WASHINGTON -- Members of the 82nd Airborne Division headquarters serving in Afghanistan have been told their tours will be extended by 52 days from 12 months to nearly 14 months. Hundreds of officers and non-commissioned soldiers were told this weekend that they would have to stay longer so that their replacements in the 101st Airborne Division could have 12 months at home -- a sign at how stretched the forces remain. The members of the 82nd Airborne were supposed to return in May 2010, but will come home sometime in July, according to a senior defense official. Troops' families at Fort Bragg, N.C., were told about the extension at a town hall meeting this weekend "Based on the recent experience of the 101st Airborne Division headquarters in Afghanistan this move will ensure continued momentum and progress in Regional Command East," said Maj. Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan. Brigade and other subordinate units of Regional Command East will not be affected by this change, the Defense Department said. The announcement marks the first change in length of tours since former President George W. Bush announced that U.S. Army tours would be reduced from 15 months back to 12 months for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert Gates had made a return to 12-month tours a priority and when the surge ended in Iraq. He encouraged Bush to announce on April 10 that the 15-month tours would be reduced. Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen and others have said repeatedly that tours longer than 12 months strain an already stretched force -- leading in some cases to incidents of rising Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The decision comes as the Defense Department faces eroding public support for the war in Afghanistan, an 8-year-old conflict that Gates said is "only now beginning." Several recent public opinion polls have shown Americans expressing declining support for the idea of sending more troops to the conflict and falling confidence in how the campaign is going. Gates said he "disagrees" strongly with suggestions it's time to get out of Afghanistan. "I absolutely do not think it is time to get out of Afghanistan and the notion that you can conduct a purely counterterror campaign and do it from a distance simply does not accord with reality." At a Pentagon news conference, Gates also challenged the perception that the Obama administration is losing its grip on the war effort. "I don't believe that the war is slipping through the administration's fingers," Gates said. "The nation has been at war for eight years. The fact that Americans would be tired of having their sons and daughters at risk and in battle is not surprising." Gates argued that President Obama's new strategy in Afghanistan has not been given a chance to work. "I think what is important to remember is the president's decisions on this strategy were only made at the very end of March; our new commander appeared on the scene in June," Gates said, adding that the extra troops Obama ordered are not even all there yet, nor is the "civilian surge" he wants on hand to help. "So we are only now beginning to be in a position to have the assets in place and the strategy or the military approach in place to begin to implement the strategy," he said. The new U.S. and NATO commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, delivered a classified assessment Monday of how the war is going and is expected in the coming weeks to ask for more troops and money to turn the war around. Obama is reading the report during his vacation at the Camp David presidential retreat north of Washington, his aides said. Gates announced benchmarks will be submitted to Capitol Hill for Afghanistan, although he did not use that word specifically. He called them "measures of effectiveness." He said they will be shared with members next week and that the deadline to have those created is Sept. 24. They will eventually be made public.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: christine (#0)
Do any of you white guilters now doubt as to why Acting President Obama kept Gates on as Def. Sec. Change?????????????? Right.
*crickets*
|
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|
||