Right around the time Senate Republicans were voicing their support for an open-ended commitment to the war in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus was preparing to ask for an even bigger escalation than had been previously advertised.
The top US commander in Iraq has requested another Army brigade, in addition to five already on the way, as part of the controversial “surge” of American troops designed to clamp down on sectarian violence and insurgent groups, senior Pentagon officials said yesterday.
The appeal — not yet made public — by General David Petraeus for a combat aviation unit would involve between 2,500 and 3,000 more soldiers and dozens of transport helicopters and powerful gunships, said the Pentagon sources. That would bring the planned expansion of US forces to close to 30,000 troops.
News of the additional deployment comes about a week after President Bush announced that about 4,700 support troops will join the initial 21,500 he ordered in January. They are in addition to the estimated 130,000 troops already in Iraq.
“This is the next shoe to drop,” said one senior Pentagon official closely involved in the war planning, who requested anonymity because of prohibitions against publicly discussing internal deliberations. “But you cannot put five combat brigades in there and not have more aviation guys, military police, and intelligence units.”
One can’t help but notice the evolving nature of the “surge’s” size. The initial sales pitch was for a 21,500 combat-troop escalation. Then we learned of a few thousand additional troops for support. By last week, Bush said he’d need to send an additional 4,700 troops. Today, Petraeus wants another entire brigade.
“There is a problem in the way the administration reported the surge numbers to begin with,” said Frederick W. Kagan , a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “When they initially reported the numbers they only reported the combat strength of the brigades, and they did not count support troops” and other personnel that the operation would need.
“Petraeus has now requested what many thought would be needed to begin with,” Kagan said, “but it looks like another surge.”
It sure does.
And, of course, as before, the additional brigade will likely need — you guessed it — additional troop support.
“Any time you deploy more combat forces you need more support forces,” said Michael O’Hanlon , a defense specialist at the Brookings Institution who compiles the Iraq Index. “You need some tactical mobility to get them out of trouble.”
Which suggests thousands of more U.S. soldiers may be on the way.
First, the principal Republican talking point is that there are signs of “encouragement” and “progress” based on the current escalation strategy. If so, why is that the size of the deployment is about to go up by about 50% after just a month?
Second, do you start to get the impression that maybe the administration hopes Americans will mind the policy less if they unveil the larger numbers in smaller increments? Hoping, perhaps, that we won’t notice the difference?
