Some aren't satisfied:
Bobby Muller, president of Veterans for America, said waiting until after the summer to return to 12-month tours will do nothing to relieve the burden on troops currently on 15-month stints, including some who are not scheduled to return home until the summer of 2009.
"Almost half of the active-duty Army's frontline units are currently deployed for 15 months. Three of these units are on their fourth tour. Almost all have served at least twice," he said. "This is the group of soldiers that has borne an immense, disproportionate burden from our wars. This is the group of soldiers that desperately needs a break — now."
I don't know what Veterans for America is (although I'd guess it is Leftist and small in numbers of actual veterans), but their president is sadly ignorant of how troop deployments work. Saying a division or brigade deploys to Iraq is not the same as saying individual soldiers deploy to Iraq. So while it is true that some units are on their fourth tour, this does not mean that all the soldiers in it are on their fourth tour.
Most soldiers in each brigade, I imagine, being new Army privates, will be on their first tour. Many soldiers will be on a second tour. And some smaller amount will indeed be on a third or maybe even fourth tour in very rare cases (Marines can have more tours if not more months in Iraq since until the last year they had 7-month tours). Of those multiple-tour soldiers, many will have different jobs, so even multiple tours don't necessarily mean that an individual is on multiple combat MOS tours.
I worry about the strain on our Army. We need to address it. But when I read arguments like this that are distinct from the reality of the problem, I grow weary of even trying to debate the anti-war side about Iraq. The most vocal voices--certainly all of the far Left--are simply not interested in having an honest debate.
Win the war. If you are that concerned about Army stress, be aware that defeat will break the Army. But we all know where their concern lies. They sure aren't interested in the strain on the Army or soldiers. They just want to lose and will say anything to achieve their demented goal.
UPDATE: I looked for VFA and found them. I will say, they seem to do a lot of valuable work in helping veterans and advocating for veterans health initiatives. However, they clearly are Left-leaning and obviously don't care one bit about winning the war in Iraq. So, they care for the soldier. They care nothing for the Army. And they care nothing for victory. And as I noted, for a veteran, the president of VFA seems to know amazingly little about how the Army deploys.
