Abizaid wants up to 10,000 more troops in Iraq

The Washington Times ^ | April 12, 2004 | UPI

[AntiGuv]

WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- U.S. Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid has asked the Pentagon for another 6,000 to 10,000 troops for Iraq, he told reporters Monday.

"What I've asked for is essentially to have a strong mobile combat arms capability. That's about, probably, two brigades worth of combat power, if not more," said Abizaid, speaking to reporters from Baghdad.

[Trust but Verify]

This will be good. The Dems have been hollering about how we, A)Need to get out of Vietnam, I mean Iraq, and B)we don't have enough soldiers in Iraq.

Which side will Kerry be on?

Both.

[Palladin]

Go for it, Gen. Abizaid! Take the troops out of Germany and any other Eurotrash country where they are hated and unappreciated, and send them to Iraq.

[Dr. Frank fan]

Other units from the United States, Europe or elsewhere could be called on.

I vote Europe.

[Pikamax]

take them from germany and kosovo.

[Solson]

I'm surprised the Times didn't also pick up the other comments of the General regarding involvement by Syria and Iran...

[AntiGuv]

Those were reported in a separate article and I'm pretty sure were already posted. Lemme check!

[Robert_Paulson2]

Solson wrote:
I'm surprised the Times didn't also pick up the other comments of the General regarding involvement by Syria and Iran...

---

praytell what DID the general say?

[swarthyguy]

Check this out.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1116231/posts

In addition to fingering Iran and Syria, we are bringing the Baathis back. Sadr's strategy has backfired. Baathi generals will now be in charge.

[Ronin]

Europe definitely.

Take them out of Germany and when their work in Iraq is done send them home or to one of our new European allies who will appreciate their presence.

[Natural Law]

Good, take them out of Germany, Okinawa and Korea. They are not needed, appreciated or reciprocated.

[pickemuphere]

Hmmm... The President's press conference tomorrow will hot with this announcement. I can already see the media frothing at the mouth. "So, things are going so poorly, Mr. President, that you need to send more troops?"

[AntiGuv]

The media would be frothing at the mouth about Iraq no matter what he does.

[optik_b]

Probably call up more National Guard/Reserve troops.

[optik_b]

"I say bring back the draft."

That would be political dynamite and would be completely contradictory to what Rumsfeld has been doing.

[jwalsh07]

No need for a draft, lets have Congress authorise three more divisions of tip of the sword types and see if we can fill them with new recruits voluntarily.

[optik_b]

I think when the military history is written about this war, it will conclude that the force structure was too small to establish security and effectively re-establish a government.

Rumsfeld was determined to do it with a small force to prove his concept of a smaller faster military.

[AntiGuv]

I wish the administration would take decisive action rather than just extending the simmering burn that much longer. They've already added 17,000 troops to the force since February (when it was 118,000) and now it appears they'll be adding at least ten thousand more (Abizaid appears to state that two brigades are a minimum). If they would apply overwhelming force all at once, they could stabilize Iraq as should have been done a long time ago.

Contrary to much spin (from Dems by and large) we have more than enough forces to do the job right in Iraq. The current force even adding two brigades is still over 100,000 fewer troops than were in the region this time last year (280,000).

[Happy2BMe]

"Abizaid wants up to 10,000 more troops in Iraq."

And he will need them . .

Iran is begging for a "visit."