Washington – The top general funneling U.S. combat reinforcements to Iraq said Wednesday that requests for additional support personnel could push the troop buildup beyond the 30,100 troops already approved.
Gen. Lance L. Smith, the Air Force officer heading the Joint Forces Command that assigns units overseas, said the number of support forces “will grow,” adding: “I can’t tell you now what the number will be.”
President Bush announced on Jan. 10 that he was ordering five brigades of 21,500 additional combat forces to Baghdad and Anbar province to augment the 132,000 U.S. troops already in Iraq.
That number has since crept higher.
Since Feb. 16, Pentagon officials, citing requests from field commanders, have announced additional deployments of at least 8,600 logistics and aviation troops to Iraq – a 40 percent increase over the surge announced by Bush 11 weeks ago.
Smith noted that three of the five additional U.S. Army combat brigades being sent to Iraq have not yet arrived, raising the possibility that the arriving commanders might request additional support in coming months.
Early Pentagon estimates for up to 8,000 support personnel don’t prevent commanders from coming in to “ask for additional capability after they sit and look at (the situation),” Smith told reporters.
“They like to look at it and see if the support structure is sufficient to handle what they’ve got and make some adjustments up or down. … We are always working requests for forces that are beyond the rotation of forces.”
Smith said the Pentagon may need to extend combat units’ 12-month deployments in Iraq if the troop buildup continues beyond late summer. But Smith said it was unlikely that current 12-month combat tours would be extended as long as the 16-month tour handed the 1st Brigade of the 34th Infantry Division of the Minnesota National Guard.
That unit left the United States last March for a year- long tour that was extended four months until August.
“As of right now, given some of the (worst-case) planning we’ve done, we don’t have anybody who we would expect to be there for 18 months,” Smith said.
