Saturday, February 24, 2007

Stupid Glenn Greenwald

What he doesn't tell you is that all the Victory Caucusers went down to their local recruiting stations and enlisted.

Oh, wait, no, that didn't happen. In fact, because of the spectacular failure of Operation Yellow Elephant, they've changed policy about National Guard deployment:

RAY SUAREZ: The Pentagon has alerted National Guard units in several states their soldiers may be returning to Iraq sooner than expected. The New York Times reported today that as many as 14,000 Guard troops could be involved.

For more, I'm joined by David Cloud of the New York Times, who broke the story today. And, David, who's being told to be ready to go back to Iraq?

DAVID CLOUD, New York Times: Well, there are units in four states -- Arkansas, Oklahoma, Ohio and Indiana -- combat brigades in all four of the states, which are being told they may have to go back to Iraq early next year. Many of them have already been to Iraq one or Afghanistan one or even two times.

RAY SUAREZ: Now, when would they have expected to go back? When, under the normal rotation, would they have gone back otherwise?

DAVID CLOUD: One of the units wasn't scheduled to go back until 2010. The other three were supposed to go back in 2009. So this is a significant shortening of the time that they're going to have at home between deployments.

Timetables for deployments

RAY SUAREZ: Now, what was the most recent policy of the Bush administration regarding how long it would be between overseas deployments for units like the ones that are being told to be ready to go back?

DAVID CLOUD: The policy for several years, since the Iraq invasion, has been that, for Guard and Reserve units, they were supposed to be deployed for 24 months every five years, no more than 24 months every five years. That was scraped in January when the president announced his surge plan, his plan to send more reinforcements to Iraq.

They acknowledged at the time that essentially the deployments had gone on so long in Iraq and Afghanistan that there was no way they could live up to those promises anymore. And they've come up with a new set of rules, which essentially say, "We will send you for one year, a maximum of one year, every five years." But in doing so, they've wiped away the previous service so that any unit is now eligible to go back for another year to Iraq or Afghanistan.


Still, don't sell the Victory Caucusers short. Here's what the 6 users who are currently online say they're willing to do to help achieve victory:


wil: Contributing my own writing
Snooper: Acting as a researcher to find and post content; Contributing my own writing.
Kateri: Acting as a researcher to find and post content; Contributing my own writing.
Fat Matty: Acting as a researcher to find and post content.
CoolBlue: Contributing my own writing

And, finally, there's Charles120, who has already done his service - Vietnam Vet - and says he's willing to help "Where ever I can be of assistance."