173,000 Troops in Iraq, More than at any point so far

[Rose Siding]

Baghdad, March 22, 2007: There will soon be more American soldiers in Iraq than at any point in the war so far. The incoming surge of 21,500 troops is only part of that picture; in addition, the U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, has asked for an additional Army aviation brigade, as well as a couple thousand military police. Other support troops will be coming in to Iraq as well, and they weren't all included in the original 21,500 estimate announced by President Bush last month. When all this is complete, sometime in July, the grand total of U.S. troops in Iraq will be 173,000, U.S. military officials here confirmed on background, apparently because of the sensitivity of these details. And it's likely that U.S. troop numbers will stay at that level for months more, perhaps even into 2008. That's only part of the picture, however; the total number of U.S. troops deployed into the war theater, that is, Iraq and neighboring countries, may be as much as 100,000 more than that. Last August, for instance, the Congressional Research Service, quoting the Department of Defense's Contingency Tracking System, put the total deployment at 260,000, while the number actually in Iraq was at 140,000 to 160,000.

http://checkpointbaghdad.talk.newsweek.com/default.asp?item=536357

[MadMaddie]

1. To our Vietnam vets...is this a really bad sign...is this what

happened during Vietnam. An out of control troop increase.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Yup, we are digging in...

[dysfunctional press]

3. they'll be needing a lot more than that-

when the cheney mis-administration decides to go after iran.

and/or turkey goes after the kurds.

there are still plenty of interesting times ahead.

[MadMaddie]

4. You are right but they are going to need a draft to fight their

wars and I don't think that's going to go well.

[Blackhatjack]

5. What they are not counting are the 'private mercenaries' like Blackwater....

Numbers regarding troop deployments can be funny things...

It all depends on how you count supporting personnel, private contractors and their security, 'advisors' , etc.

The real numbers of deployed will likely breach 200,000.

For history buffs, this is the LBJ strategy --keep sending more troops.

And yes there is no doubt the issue of a draft will have to be addressed and soon.

[Jonathan50]

6. That's only about 1/2 to 1/3 of what is actually needed..

From paragraph 1-67 of Army field manual 3-24 Counterinsurgency, recently updated by General Petraeus.

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-24.pdf

A better force requirement gauge is troop density, the ratio of security forces (including the host nation’s military and police forces as well as foreign counterinsurgents) to inhabitants. Most density recommendations fall within a range of 20 to 25 counterinsurgents for every 1000 residents in an AO. Twenty counterinsurgents per 1000 residents is often considered the minimum troop density required for effective COIN operations; however as with any fixed ratio, such calculations remain very dependent upon the situation.

Twenty troops per 1000 population works out to 120,000 for Baghdad alone and about 450,000 for all of Iraq.

[roamer65]

7. Turkey has a conscript 1 million plus army.

Plus all that stuff that we have sold them as a NATO member. Makes 173,000 seem sorta small, eh?