Afghanistan and Iraq Status of Forces

Our ground forces are larger now than at any time since 9/11 (45 Army brigades and I think 9 Marine regiments in the active components), but relieving the deployment stress on the Army and Marines won't really kick in until late next year after we draw down forces in Iraq further. At least the forces in Iraq don't face much combat, making deployment stress less than it was during the height of combat in Iraq.

The current deployment situation is this:

The Army has 17 brigades deployed worldwide, including 11 in Iraq and five in Afghanistan, according to Pentagon data. The Marine Corps has one expeditionary brigade in Afghanistan. As of early this month, 65,000 U.S. troops were in Afghanistan and about 124,000 were in Iraq. At the height of the increase in Iraq, in late 2007 and early 2008, about 160,000 U.S. troops were in Iraq and 26,000 were in Afghanistan.

This tally would seem to include our Army brigade in South Korea but doesn't include our Army brigades in Europe as "overseas." Nor does it count a Marine regimental combat team in Okinawa.

Still, it is a useful count for Iraq and Afghanistan. I wasn't sure if we had 4 or 5 Army brigades in Afghanistan. And my Iraq count guess was 12 give or take a brigade.

We'll draw down to 6 in Iraq by next fall, barring bad developments. And we're still debating the form of our Afghanistan campaign.