Washington – The Army is stretched so thin by the war in Iraq that it is again extending the combat tours of thousands of soldiers beyond the promised 12 months – the second such move since August.
Soldiers of the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division had been expecting to return to their home base in Germany in mid-January.
Instead, they will stay an extra 46 days in Iraq, until late February, the Pentagon announced Monday. The soldiers are operating in western Anbar province, one of the most violent parts of Iraq.
The Pentagon also announced that the 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division will deploy to Iraq 30 days earlier than scheduled, starting in late October. The announcement did not say why the speedup was deemed necessary, but three officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said it is part of a plan to beef up forces in Baghdad, where U.S. and Iraqi troops are struggling to contain insurgent and sectarian violence.
The Pentagon said troop rotations could be changed even further “based upon changes in the security situation.” Sectarian killings in Baghdad and continuing insurgent violence elsewhere in Iraq have foiled Pentagon plans to begin a troop reduction this fall.
“The Army is coming to the end of its rope in Iraq,” said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, a private research group. “It simply does not have enough active- duty military personnel to sustain the current level of effort.”
Of the 142,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq, nearly 120,000 are Army soldiers.
The tour extension affects about 3,800 soldiers in the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored, officials said.
Asked about the matter at a news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declined to confirm the extension but said that “from time to time there may be” units required to stay in Iraq longer than scheduled. He spoke before the Pentagon issued its written announcement.
Last month, the Army’s 172nd Stryker Brigade was ordered to extend its tour in Iraq by up to four months. Some members of that unit had already returned to the brigade’s home base in Alaska when the decision was announced. About 300 soldier had to go back to Iraq, drawing public complaints from some families.
Rumsfeld also appeared to hint at other adjustments to the troop rotation plan.
“We’re also bringing some other units in earlier, which is another way of dealing with that issue” of how to keep a sufficient number of troops in Iraq with a limited number of combat brigades available, Rumsfeld said.
