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Pentagon delays us troops trip home Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040406/6084105s.htmhttp://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040406/6084105s.htm
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Pentagon delays U.S. troops' trip home
No word yet on which units will stay longer in Iraq
By Tom Squitieri
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- A decision by the Pentagon to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq is a reversal of its plan to steadily reduce the U.S. force level there.
Since the war began a year ago, senior military leaders have given frequent assurances to troops and their families that Iraq duty would be no longer than a year.
Now, those assurances have met the reality of Iraq, where military leaders are planning for the possibility that anti-U.S. violence will spread. U.S. troops are stretched thin around the world, and the Pentagon has few options to increase the force in Iraq if necessary.
On Monday, a senior official with U.S. Central Command said that the return home of about 24,000 U.S. troops who were scheduled to leave in the next few weeks would be delayed as their replacements arrive. Central Command's responsibility includes the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With the 24,000 remaining and others who have arrived as intended replacements, there are 134,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
The senior official spoke to reporters at the Pentagon by phone from Central Command in Tampa. He gave the briefing on the condition that he not be identified.
Defense officials did not say how much beyond a year some troops would stay. They discussed the deployment in the context of reducing the current violence in Iraq in the weeks leading up to June 30, when Iraqis will regain their sovereignty from the United States. The United States will maintain a military presence after Iraq resumes self-rule.
At an emergency meeting Monday, Gen. John Abizaid, head of Central Command, and other senior generals ordered a list of options on troop levels after an escalation of violence over the weekend.
Besides the extended deployment, they are studying which U.S. troops at bases around the world could be readied for a quick move to Iraq in an emergency, the senior defense official said. None of the units being considered for emergency duty in Iraq are in the USA now, he said.
The official said that the Pentagon does not believe additional U.S. forces would be needed and that the latest violence is not the beginning of a civil war in Iraq.
The Army's 4th Infantry, 101st Airborne, 1st Armored, 82nd Airborne division and 173rd Airborne Brigade have units in Iraq that have been scheduled to leave by May. Most have been there for a year.
The senior official did not identify which units could have their stays extended.
When troops leave Iraq, they get at least six months of non-combat duty. They resume training and also repair helicopters, tanks and other equipment that has been reduced in efficiency because of the tough conditions in Iraq.
Working with the U.S. troops in Iraq are 8,200 from the United Kingdom and about 14,680 combat troops from 29 other countries.
Some foreign leaders have expressed growing concern about their troops, especially since terrorist attacks in Madrid on March 11.
Spain's incoming prime minister plans to withdraw his nation's 1,300 troops unless the United Nations assumes direct control. Honduran officials say they will pull their 370 troops out of Iraq during the summer. Some U.S. military officials in Iraq have speculated that El Salvador, Nicaragua and possibly the Dominican Republic, all parts of the Plus Ultra Brigade serving with the Spaniards, would also depart. Guatemala President Oscar Berger said his nation would not send troops as promised.
President Bush was unsuccessful last month in lobbying the Dutch prime minister to keep his nation's 1,300 troops in Iraq beyond June. South Korea has announced that the 3,600 troops it promised to send to Kirkuk to relieve the United States' 173rd Airborne will not go because of U.S. pressure to participate in ''offensive operations.'' South Korean leaders said they would consider sending forces to other parts of Iraq to help rebuild the country.
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