Democrats Push a Tactic to Shift Iraq Plan

[unhappycamper]

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, left, yesterday with Gen. Peter Pace, Joint Chiefs chairman.


Democrats Push a Tactic to Shift Iraq Plan
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and DAVID S. CLOUD
Published: September 15, 2007

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 — Now that President Bush and Gen. David H. Petraeus have charted their course for the Iraq war, Democrats in the Senate say one of their proposals aimed at shifting the president’s strategy is finally close to winning enough Republican support for a real chance at being approved. It would require that troops spend as much time at home as on their most recent tours overseas before being redeployed.

The proposal, by Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, has strong support from top Democrats, who say that the practical effect would be to add time between deployments and force General Petraeus to withdraw troops on a substantially swifter timeline than the one he laid out before Congress this week, and that it would protect troops from serving protracted and debilitating deployments.

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware and a candidate for president, called the proposal the “easiest way” for his Republican colleagues to change the war strategy on the same day that the Bush administration released a mixed report on the Iraqi government’s progress toward various goals.

The Pentagon sought on Friday to challenge the Democrats’ approach, with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates saying at a Pentagon news conference that it would only create further hardships for the military, including the prospect of even lengthier tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr. Gates called the proposal “well-intentioned,” but said it might require extending tours of units already in Iraq, calling up additional National Guard and Reserve troops, and making other adjustments that “would further stress the force and reduce its combat effectiveness.”

“The complexity of managing the flow of units, individuals and capabilities to two active combat theaters is enormous and does not lend itself to simplistic, or to simple, legislative prescriptions,” Mr. Gates said at a briefing with Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “The cumulative effect of these kinds of things, we think, would, frankly, increase the risk to our men and women in uniform over there.”


Rest of article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/15/washington/15cong.html?_r=3&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1189818243-7WQsFgF1r96PhgaxEsrhmQ&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[frogcycle]

1. amendment needs more

"Mr. Gates called the proposal “well-intentioned,” but said it might require extending tours of units already in Iraq, calling up additional National Guard and Reserve troops, and making other adjustments that “would further stress the force and reduce its combat effectiveness.”"

Needs to also put a cap on tours and limit the percent of troops deployed that can come from NG.

If all the active-duty army and marines are in between deployments we can't have them sending 130000 NG. I don't know what the percentages are now, but a logical limit needs to be set as part of this amendment.

NO LOOPHOLES!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1808854&mesg_id=1809105

[ananda]

2. If the tactic is not about immediate impeachment, then..

.. it's all talk and no show. Period.