 |
|
|
 News from Around the Americas | January 2007 
US Troop Surge Already Under Way
 Jonathan Karl - ABC News
| | Two-year-old Alyssa gives a farewell kiss to her father, Sgt. Augusto Bernard, as he waits at Fort Stewart, Georgia, with his family and fellow soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, to depart for Iraq. Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq is already under way, with 800 troops expected to arrive in Baghdad Thursday. (AP) |
Baghdad - President Bush's speech may be scheduled for tonight, but the troop surge in Iraq is already under way.
ABC News has learned that the "surge" Bush is expected to announce in a prime time speech tonight has already begun. Ninety advance troops from the 82nd Airborne Division arrived in Baghdad Wednesday.
An additional battalion of roughly 800 troops from the same division are expected to arrive in Baghdad Thursday. Eighty percent of the sectarian violence occurs within a 30-mile radius of Baghdad, so that is where most of the additional troops will be concentrated.
It is the first small wave of troops in a new White House strategy that is expected to put more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq and likely require new call-ups of the National Guard.
The president is expected to deliver his announcement about the troop increase, a plan that has already met with stiff criticism from many members of Congress, in a speech tonight from the White House.
The arrival of additional forces in Iraq comes a day after leading Democrats said they would back legislation that would block funding to pay for additional military forces.
A spokeswoman for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who, Tuesday, urgently called for Congress to vote on - and reject - the proposed surge, told ABC News that the arrival of additional soldiers "underscores Sen. Kennedy's point that Congress must act immediately."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-N.M., also responded to the report, calling the troops' arrival "deeply disappointing."
Reid has said that Americans don't want to see additional forces in Iraq, and that he has been considering plans offered by his congressional colleagues.
Split Troops to Secure City
Military commanders say there is more to this plan than boots on the ground - it's also how the troops will be used.
The idea is for U.S. and Iraqi forces to become a more integral part of Baghdad neighborhoods such as Dora, which was secured in August 2006 only to see violence spike when U.S. forces left.
Under the new plan, the city of Baghdad will be divided into nine separate sections at the request of Iraqis, who want one army and police battalion devoted to each section.
The additional U.S. troops being sent to Baghdad will be divided among the nine sections of the city, nearly doubling U.S. combat power in the region.
In a switch from the current course of action, these U.S. forces will be housed in the very neighborhoods they patrol. Military planners tell ABC News there will eventually be about 30 mini bases, called joint security stations, scattered around Baghdad, housing both U.S. and Iraqi troops.
The plan also includes an emphasis on performance from the Iraqis. White House officials said they have put tremendous pressure on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to crack down on Shiite militias, especially radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who is thought to be responsible for most of the sectarian violence.
A senior White House official said that Maliki told the president, "I swear to God, I'm not going to let Sadr run this country."
Maliki must also provide Iraqi troops on schedule and give Sunnis a larger role in the government.
Tonight, the president is expected to say that he's made it clear to the prime minister and Iraq's other leaders that America's commitment is not open-ended, that now is the time to act.
The president is also expected to announce tonight the deployment of a second aircraft carrier - perhaps the USS Stennis - to the Persian Gulf, as part of a regularly scheduled deployment. Centcom Commander Gen. John Abizaid has requested a second carrier because of Iran and other threats in the region.
The ship will leave next weekend on its regularly scheduled departure date, but will proceed to the Gulf instead of its original deployment to the Pacific.
"Old Way Is Failing"
Commanders believe the new approach will make U.S. forces better positioned to combat sectarian violence, but they acknowledge this approach is riskier and will likely mean more U.S. casualties in the short-run.
In al-Anbar Province, an additional 4,000 Marines will focus on fighting al Qaeda to try to take advantage of what U.S. commanders say is a new willingness of some Sunni tribal leaders to cooperate in the fight against the international terrorist organization.
The increase in U.S. forces will be completed within 90 to 120 days.
ABC News has also learned that National Guard troops who have seen combat in Iraq and Afghanistan will likely be getting some unwelcome news: They may have to go back to Iraq later this year. National Guard combat teams would be sent to Iraq as the next wave of the surge, unless the first wave succeeds in reducing the violence.
Commanders here caution it will take several months to fully implement the plan and maybe even longer to see results. As one senior military official here said Wednesday, "We don't know if this will work, but we do know the old way was failing."
ABC News' Jake Tapper and Martha Raddatz contributed to this report.
Troop Boost Will Mean Longer Tours
Robert Burns - Associated Press
The military's plan for filling President Bush's order for an extra 21,500 troops in Iraq will include only one major combat unit that was not otherwise scheduled to go.
The rest of the boost will come from sending a few brigades earlier than planned and extending the tours of others. Affected will be units based in Minnesota, Kansas, Georgia and Washington, said a military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not been publicly released.
The White House said the Army would add 17,500 soldiers in Baghdad and the Marines would put 4,000 more in western Anbar Province, the center of the Sunni Arab insurgency.
Whether the military push proves successful or not, it will have ramifications later for an Army and Marine Corps that already are stretched thin.
Some units will have less time at home for rest and retraining between tours than their commanders would like. And the faster pace of deployments could force the Pentagon to call on National Guard and Reserve units more frequently - possibly to remobilize some that already have served in Iraq.
According to the military official, who provided no dates,
• The 1st Brigade, 34th Infantry Division, Minnesota Army National Guard, will stay longer than planned in Iraq;
• The 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Riley, Kansas, will deploy to Iraq earlier than planned;
• The 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, based at Fort Lewis, Wash., will deploy early;
• The 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart, Ga., will deploy early;
• And the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Benning, Ga., will deploy early.
President Bush planned to visit Fort Benning Thursday morning as part of an effort to promote his revamped Iraq strategy. Brigades typically have about 3,500 troops.
The Pentagon made no official announcement about its troop-boost plan.
In addition, the 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne, which had not been scheduled to go to Iraq this year, is expected to move into Iraq by mid-January. The brigade's home base is Fort Bragg, N.C.
Some of the additional troops will be placed inside Iraqi army units to accelerate their training. Others will support Iraqi army units that will be expected to do the bulk of the street patrols and other missions to quell Baghdad's sectarian violence.
The increase is to be achieved over a period of months. At its height, the troop total - now at about 132,000 - apparently would reach about 153,500, although the Pentagon did not release a timeline for the increases.
That is not appreciably higher than just two months ago when it stood at 152,000. And it is a little less than the 160,000 level of one year ago, in the immediate aftermath of Iraqi elections.
Even so, it marks a major change of direction for a Pentagon which last summer believed it could reduce U.S. troops levels to below 100,000 by now. Instead it built up forces in the summer and fall as sectarian violence escalated.
Kevin Ryan, a retired Army brigadier general at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, said the impact of this troop increase on the overall health of the Army will depend in part on how long it is maintained.
If it is only for a few months, as appeared possible from early indications of Army and Marine Corps planning, then "we won't have long-term damage to the force" from excessive strain, Ryan said in a telephone interview.
In congressional testimony in November, Gen. John Abizaid, the top commander for U.S. forces in the Middle East, said a troop increase of 20,000 could not be sustained for long because the Army and Marine Corps simply are too small.
A White House official who briefed reporters on the plan in advance of Bush's scheduled address to the nation Wednesday evening said the president would mention anew his proposal to increase the size of the Army and Marines.
It was not clear, from information available in advance of Bush's speech, how long the troop increase would be designed to last, but it appeared to be no more than several weeks or perhaps a few months, based on indications that tour extensions would be relatively short.
The Marines plan to extend the tours of two battalions in Anbar Province by 60 days starting in February, one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. That would achieve a net gain of 4,000 troops because the two battalions would remain after their designated replacements arrived from the United States in February.
Associated Press writer Lolita Baldor contributed to this report. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us