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Army Lengthens Iraq Tours Despite Pledge

Posted on: Thursday, 15 April 2004, 06:00 CDT

WASHINGTON - For about 21,000 American soldiers, the Army's promise to limit tours of duty in Iraq to no more than 12 months has fallen victim to the surge in anti-occupation violence.

Approximately 18,000 soldiers of the 1st Armored Division, which is based in Germany, and about 2,800 of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment from Fort Polk, La., have been told that they will remain in Iraq for another three months instead of coming home this month, a senior defense official said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The decision, which has not been announced publicly, breaks the Army's pledge to soldiers and their families that assignments in Iraq would not exceed one year. The affected soldiers already have been in Iraq for a year.

In addition, about 1,000 soldiers in a number of transportation units based in Kuwait will be extended beyond one year, the official said. Most of them are in the National Guard or Reserve. They are deemed critical to resupplying the troops based in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was to announce the decision Thursday. He had said last week that he would approve Iraq tour extensions if commanders believed it was necessary to maintain enough combat power to deal with the recent escalation of attacks by insurgents.

The decision comes at a particularly delicate moment. April has become the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Iraq since they set foot in the country in March 2003. The number of wounded also has skyrocketed.

The advantage of keeping soldiers of the 1st Armored and the 2nd Armored Cavalry in Iraq for an extra three months - rather than bringing in an equivalent number from elsewhere - is that these soldiers have unmatched combat experience in Iraq and familiarity with insurgents' tactics.

The Army is so stretched by its commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans and elsewhere that it has few, if any, forces immediately available to substitute in Iraq for the 1st Armored or 2nd Armored Cavalry.

Also, these units have been heavily involved in one of the most important U.S. military missions there: training thousands of Iraqi security forces. Those Iraqi army and civil defense corps members are central to the Pentagon's plan for eventually turning over military control to the Iraqis and pulling out U.S. troops.

Gen. John Abizaid, the overall commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, had planned, as part of the current rotation of fresh forces into Iraq, to reduce the U.S. presence from about 135,000 troops to about 115,000.

But the surge this month in anti-occupation violence in restive areas in and around Baghdad and in the south has forced Abizaid to change course. He has indicated that he needed more forces than originally planned, but would not tell reporters exactly how many or where he would get them.

Fort Polk, the Army base in Louisiana that is home to the 2nd Armored Cavalry, issued a news release last week quoting the regiment's commander, Col. Bradley W. May, as saying "elements" of his unit "will remain in theater longer than initially announced." He did not say how many soldiers were affected.

The 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cavalry recently returned home to Louisiana, but the rest of the unit will remain in Iraq. May did not say how much longer his unit would be in Iraq.

Other defense officials said family members were told the soldiers probably would be back at Fort Polk in about four months. They likely will be in Iraq an extra three months, then take a month to redeploy.

The 1st Armored and the 2nd Armored Cavalry are part of a contingent of about 135,000 U.S. soldiers who were being replaced this spring by a fresh group of soldiers and Marines. The 101st Airborne, the 4th Infantry Division and other units recently left Iraq, with the arrival of the 1st Infantry Division, a brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 1st Marine Division. Two brigades of the Army National Guard also are newly arrived.

While surely disappointed that his troops must remain longer than planned, the commander of the 2nd Armored Cavalry has told them they should be ready to help finish the job.

"We are being called to end the fight against Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army and we will," May said, referring to the militia of the radical Shiite cleric who has incited violence against the U.S.-led occupation forces in southern cities including Najaf.

Still, the change of plans is bound to take a psychological toll. In a letter to his troops in January, May assured them that their time in Iraq was "fast approaching its conclusion."

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