More Troops
Gen. Mixon needs them in Diyala. Gen. Casey has talked about stepping up the pace on enlarging the Army. About now, it might be useful for Bush, Gates and the Democratic leadership in Congress to start talking about giving the Army what it needs to win, and what it needs to face the other challenges ahead of us. Instead this nonsense. Exercising actual constructive leadership might help with this.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:43 pm on Saturday, May 12, 2007
2 Responses to “More Troops”
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May 12th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
The Times articles says:
“It is rare for an officer of Mixon’s rank to publicly call for more troops. When Donald H. Rumsfeld was secretary of Defense, there was intense pressure on officers to not make such requests, even privately, according to officers who served in Iraq.”
The article also notes:
“One Pentagon official said Mixon’s public request was being viewed as an attempt to pressure the new commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, into sending more troops to Diyala from Baghdad, since the overstretched Army is unable to send substantial numbers of reinforcements from the U.S.”
Can you comment more about troop levels earlier in the deployment? Also, any comments on relations between the Pentagon — especially with Gates at the helm — and the Army’s officer corps? I ask because I wrote today on my blog about a new Foreign Affairs article critical of civil-military relations in the G.W. Bush administration. I think we needed to send more divisions in 2003, especially for post-conflict stability, but I disagree with much of the the article, written by Michael Desch, who’s (ironically) at the G.H.W. Bush School of Public Service at Texas A&M University:
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070501faessay86309/michael-c-desch/bush-and-the-generals.html
Here’s the link to my post, “Civil Military Relations in the Bush Administration,” if you’re interested:
http://burkeanreflections.blogspot.com/2007/05/civil-military-relations-in-bush.html
Thanks and take care!
May 12th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
In reference to 4-2 strykers and MNF-N needing more troops….
http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/military/?title=dragoon_raiders_have_arrived&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
• The Bde HQ, plus 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, the 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, the 202nd Brigade Support Battalion and the brigade’s signal, intelligence and engineer companies, are at Camp Taji and under the higher command of the 25th Infantry Division as Multi-National Division-North.