Wednesday, May 09, 2007

The Surge Lurches On

surge
n 1: a sudden forceful flow [syn: rush, spate, upsurge]
2: a sudden or abrupt strong increase: "stimulated a surge of
speculation"; "an upsurge of emotion"; "an upsurge in
violent crime" [syn: upsurge]
3: a large sea wave [syn: billow]
v 1: rise and move, as in waves or billows; "The army surged
forward" [syn: billow, heave]

The Pentagon announced yesterday that 35,000 soldiers in 10 Army combat brigades will begin deploying to Iraq in August as replacements, making it possible to sustain the increase of U.S. troops there until at least the end of this year.

U.S. commanders in Iraq are increasingly convinced that heightened troop levels, announced by President Bush in January, will need to last into the spring of 2008. The military has said it would assess in September how well its counterinsurgency strategy, intended to pacify Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, is working.

"The surge needs to go through the beginning of next year for sure," said Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the day-to-day commander for U.S. military operations in Iraq. The new requirement of up to 15-month tours for active-duty soldiers will allow the troop increase to last until spring, said Odierno, who favors keeping experienced forces in place for now.
Read the rest... And the madness continues.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The surge needs to go through the beginning of next year for sure," said Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno...

I forget the original happy talk about the duration of the surge, but that's a goalpost move, isn't it?

HopeSpringsATurtle said...

Sho' nuff' Op. Stay the course as usual. What I don't understand is why only 40% of the American people support impeachment of the chimp-clown-king.