Pentagon strains to uphold troops levels in Iraq

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Pentagon strains to uphold troops levels in Iraq
It plans to send four National Guard units back into combat and may extend the tours of five Army brigades.
By Peter Spiegel and Richard Simon, Times Staff Writers
April 10, 2007



WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will send four National Guard brigades to Iraq and may extend the tours of five active-duty Army brigades by as much as four months as it strains to find troops to sustain the buildup in Baghdad through the end of the year.

The National Guard deployments — 13,000 soldiers based in Arkansas, Indiana, Oklahoma and Ohio — mark the first time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that entire brigades are being called up for second combat tours. The four brigades served in Iraq, Afghanistan or the Balkans in 2004 or 2005.

"Obviously everyone is going to be a little apprehensive about going back to Iraq," said Col. Kendall Penn, commander of the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Arkansas. "However, this is a mission that the unit has trained for…. It is a mission that we are capable of doing."

The deployments come at a politically difficult time for President Bush, who is fighting efforts in the Democratic-controlled Congress to force him to withdraw combat forces from the 4-year-old war.

more:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-guard10apr10,1,3648432.story?track=rss