US sending 300 newly returned troops back to Iraq
Mon 14 Aug 2006 4:25 PM ET
By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - About 300 U.S. soldiers who just weeks ago returned home to Alaska after a year in Iraq are being ordered back to try to help bolster security in Baghdad, the U.S. Army said on Monday.

The soldiers are part of the 3,900-strong 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Wainwright in Alaska. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on July 27 ordered the unit to remain in Iraq for up to four months past its scheduled departure.

The order provoked anger and disappointment among some of the soldiers' families in Alaska. It also made clear that any significant reduction in the 135,000-strong U.S. force in Iraq was unlikely in the immediate future.

The brigade was so far along in the process of flowing out of Iraq after its yearlong tour that 380 soldiers had returned home to Alaska and 300 had arrived in Kuwait en route home, the Army said.

All of the brigade's soldiers who had reached Kuwait were sent back into Iraq, the Army said. And now, 300 of the 380 who made it to Alaska will be sent back to Iraq within the next couple of weeks, said Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon.

Those 300, mainly infantry soldiers, are needed back in Iraq "to maintain the cohesiveness of that unit as much as possible," Boyce said. Most of these soldiers returned to Alaska three weeks ago but some have been back for as long as five weeks, Boyce added.

Pentagon policy is for Army units to serve 12-month tours in Iraq and Marine Corps units to serve seven-month tours. Army soldiers kept longer than one year in Iraq get an extra $1,000 in pay per month, the Army said.

The 172nd had operated primarily in the Mosul area in relatively calm northern Iraq, but is being shifted into Baghdad, the site of unrelenting violence despite attempts at a security crackdown by U.S. and Iraqi government forces.

The brigade now is due to return to Alaska starting in late November through early January, officials said.

After some troops and families complained earlier in the war about lack of predictability in the length of tours in Iraq, the Pentagon instituted the rules on deployment duration. This was intended to reduce emotional stress for troops serving in a hostile and unpredictable environment.

Lt. Col. Wayne Shanks, an Army spokesman, said military leaders in Alaska are working with soldiers and their families to address hardships brought about by the extended duty.

The Army said the brigade has not received any assurances it will not be extended even further, but said Rumsfeld would have to approve any such move.

If only we would achieve our well-stated and specific goals, these troops could come home!!!

Wait...

What goals?

Sounds like an open ended war! Based on lies to boot!

Just keep sending boys into the meat grinder. Dissent is unpatriotic.

Well, I guess the news isn't all bad:



I mean, what do the lives of thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians matter - profit profit profit!

ya ok I hate W as much as any one but this really just more of that same old crap.

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/Central Florida Astronomical Society

George W. Bush's Resume

George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Past Work Experience

• Ran for congress and lost.
  
• Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.
  
• Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas; company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
  
• Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox.
  
• With father's help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas.
  

Accomplishments in Previous Positions

• Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union.
  
• Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog-ridden city in America. Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money.
  
• Set record for most executions by any governor in American history.
  
• Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my father's appointments to the Supreme Court.
  

Accomplishments As President

• Attacked and took over two countries.
  
• Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
  
• Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
  
• Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
  
• Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
  
• First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
  
• First president in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.
  
• First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in U.S. history.
  
• After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
  
• Set the record for most campaign fundraising trips than any other president in U.S. history.
  

• In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
  
• Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in U.S. history.
  
• Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
  
• Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in U.S. history.
  
• Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
  
• Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in U.S. history.
  
• Presided over the biggest energy crises in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
  
• Presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.
  
• Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.
  
• Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.
  

• Dissolved more international treaties than any president in U.S. history.
  
• My presidency is the most secretive and unaccountable of any in U.S. history.
  
• Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history (the 'poorest' multimillionaire, Condoleezza Rice, has an Exxon oil tanker named after her).
  
• First president in U.S. history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously go bankrupt.
  
• Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world.
  
• First president in U.S. history to order a U.S. attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation.
  
• Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
  
• Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in U.S. history.
  
• First president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the human rights commission.
  
• First president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the elections monitoring board.
  
• Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in U.S. history.
  
• Rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant.
  
• Withdrew from the World Court of Law.
  
• Refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
  
• First president in U.S. history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. elections).
  
• All-time U.S. (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
  
• My biggest lifetime campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
  

• Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in U.S. history.
  
• First president in U.S. history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
  
• First president to run and hide when the U.S. came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)
  
• First U.S. president to establish a secret shadow government.
  
• Took the biggest world sympathy for the U.S. after 9/11, and in less than a year made the U.S. the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in U.S. and world history).
  
• With a policy of 'disengagement' created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.
  
• Fist U.S. president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
  
• First U.S. president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the U.S. than their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
  
• Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
  
• Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated U.S. law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.
  
• Failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive.'
  
• Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capital building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects.
  
• In the 18 months following the 9/11 attacks I have successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.
  
• Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in U.S. history.
  
• In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the U.S. has ever been since the Civil War.
  
• Entered office with the strongest economy in U.S. history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.
  

Records and References

• At least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available)
  
• AWOL from National Guard and deserted the military during a time of war.
  
• Refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.
  
• All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my father's library, sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
  
• All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
  
• All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
  
• Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.
  
• For personal references please speak to my daddy or uncle James Baker (they can be reached at their offices of the Carlyle Group for war-profiteering.)
  

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Reality Internet Personality

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You can't start a war without W(inning)

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me@rescam.org

The only thing the liberals are good at is propaganda!

Matt you are lucky that GB's middle name starts with W otherwise you couldn't have used that title.

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Red Bull Air Racing

Gas price by zip at Seti

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The only thing the liberals are good at is propaganda!

Matt you are lucky that GB's middle name starts with W otherwise you couldn't have used that title.

He apparently can't spell Bin Laden, Napolean, Hitler, or any number of other words.

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No animals were harmed in the making of the above post... much.

The only thing the liberals are good at is propaganda!

Matt you are lucky that GB's middle name starts with W otherwise you couldn't have used that title.

He apparently can't spell Bin Laden, Napolean, Hitler, or any number of other words.

We're actually going to lose the war on account of spelling?

EEK! Bring up the reserves! Spelling Bee Kids: Forward March!




P.S. The truth is: You can't start a War without MattDavis.

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Um, President George W. Bush won't be running for President again, having served the maximum two terms in office.

So Matt: What're you going to be saying if the Republicans win the next election and continue with the current foreign policy?

No troll...Just curious.

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Um, President George W. Bush won't be running for President again, having served the maximum two terms in office.

So Matt: What're you going to be saying if the Republicans win the next election and continue with the current foreign policy?

No troll...Just curious.

He won't be saying anything, he'll just continue scouring the web for funny Bush images so he can hyperlink them here.

I havn't seen any real original thought from him yet....

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