NYT: Bush’s Troop-Increase Plan Is Expected to Draw Six Guard Brigades to Iraq

[DeepModem Mom]

Bush’s Troop-Increase Plan Is Expected to Draw Six Guard Brigades to Iraq
By DAVID S. CLOUD and THOM SHANKER
Published: January 10, 2007

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 — President Bush’s plan to increase troop levels in Iraq is expected to require the Army eventually to send as many as six National Guard combat brigades to Iraq, beginning in 2008.

The increased demand on the National Guard in coming years is a likely byproduct of Mr. Bush’s decision, expected to be announced in a speech Wednesday night, to send five active-duty combat brigades, or about 20,000 troops, to Iraq, starting at the end of this month, according to current and former officials.

Two of those brigades are likely to be in place in Iraq by mid-February, with the rest flowing in one a month until May, according to a military official with access to a recent version of the plan. The Bush blueprint also envisions sending two additional Marine battalions to Anbar Province, as well as delaying the departure of 2,200 additional Marines now in the province.

In a government-wide effort to expand the American commitment to Iraq, a program to operate Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq will be doubled and renamed as Provincial Support Teams, a senior administration official said Tuesday. Currently, the United States operates seven of these teams and allies operate three; the Bush plan will call for adding nine more. They will be staffed by personnel from across the government — the Departments of State, Defense, Agriculture and Justice — to help neighborhoods manage economic and political development, the official said.

It remains unclear whether Mr. Bush will discuss the heightened future demand on the National Guard during his much-anticipated address, but identifying the additional units for possible deployment is likely to begin in the days and weeks after he delivers the speech. That process would raise the political stakes for Mr. Bush, since it would highlight the increased contribution his plan would require from reserve units....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/washington/10military.html

[babylonsister]

1. Boy, does this reek to high heaven. So while the NG is gone,

again, who will be helping and protecting the US? Wrong on so many levels...

[kenny blankenship]

2. Should Governors regard their confiscated Guardsmen as hostages?

[magellan]

3. Beginning in 2008?

It will be interesting to see how this jibes with Bush**'s expected mention tonight of a promise that Iraqi forces will be ready to take over by November this year.

[hadrons]

4. I saw a recruiting ad for the national Guard this month ....

the set up was one of those father-son talks and the son was explaining how he's just enlisting in the guard and empathized how he'll be helping his community ... I guess somehow Iraq was gerrymandered into his district