More than 12,000 National Guard troops will begin deployment to Iraq in
December, the Pentagon announced yesterday.
It is the latest deployment in what has become the largest National Guard
mobilization of its kind since the Vietnam era, according to NPR radio.
Since 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, nearly a quarter-million National Guard
troops across the country have been mobilized.
The majority of National Guard infantry brigades (roughly 3,000 soldiers
each) have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Now, four of those brigades with over 12,000 troops are heading out again.
The latest deployment will start sometimes December and continue on into
early 2008.
The deployment is scheduled to last a year, but judging by earlier rotations,
that timeframe will likely be extended.
The Pentagon said the deployments are routine rotations and have nothing to
do with the Bush administration's troop-boost plan for Iraq.
But the latest announcement underscores the shortage of combat manpower in
the Army at a time when the Bush administration wants to maintain at least
160,000 troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future.
In that sense, the Pentagon desperately needs manpower but it does not have
enough.
As a result, the stopgap solution, at least from the Pentagon's perspective,
is to use so-called "citizen soldiers" -- National Guard
troops.