If this wasn’t published directly on the Pentagon’s website, I’d swear it was some kind of parody, meant to make the Bush administration look foolish.
Extended overseas deployments affecting soldiers serving in Afghanistan and other locales overseen by U.S. Central Command should help to alleviate the stress on the Army, a senior U.S. officer in Afghanistan told Pentagon reporters today.
“I’m absolutely confident that that’s going to work and that’ll manage the pressure and the stress on the force,” Army Col. Martin Schweitzer, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, said during a satellite-carried news conference. […]
The tour extensions will provide more predictability and stability for soldiers and their families, [Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno] said, noting the policy “will ensure 12 months at home station between rotations.” (emphasis added)
Let me get this straight. Two weeks ago, the Pentagon announced it is extending tours of duty for U.S. troops in Iraq, from 12 to 15 months (the announcement came less than 24 hours after Bush said extending tours of duty for U.S. troops in Iraq is “unacceptable”). Most credible experts believe the military is stretched so badly, it’s near the breaking point. The troops and their families are feeling anxiety that’s hard for civilians to even imagine.
But as far as the Pentagon’s news service is concerned, longer tours of duty will “alleviate the stress on the Army”? Is this some kind of sick attempt at humor?
As Noah Shachtman put it, “This is entering into ‘Baghdad Bob’ territory, folks. Seriously.”
Shachtman added that there two possible interpretations of the stress-reduction argument. Neither work.
The first is that longer tours will somehow ease pressures on the service, institutionally. Traditionally, the Army has tried to give its troops two years at home for every year in combat. Which means deployed units should only make up about a third of the force; the other two-thirds should be at rest or in training. But with the Iraq war dragging on so long, that hasn’t been possible. “Today half the Army’s 43 combat brigades are deployed overseas, with the remainder recovering from their latest deployment or preparing for the next one,” Time recently reported. Now, you’re telling me that more time in Iraq somehow help correct that imbalance? That doesn’t even pass the laugh test.
“Army stress” could also be interpreted as the burdens that soldiers and their families face, as they head off to war, again and again. That’s the kind of stress Gen. Odierno seems to imply will be helped by soldiers spending an extra three months in a warzone. Again, that’s a downright laughable position to take.
“Baghdad Bob,” indeed.