Iraq plan to rely on extending tours

WASHINGTON – 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 this morning as part of an effort to promote his revamped Iraq strategy. Brigades typically have about 3,500 troops.

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.