Military Sacrifices Soldiers for Escalation
The Pentagon will no longer limit the time a soldier can spend fighting on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military can now cycle the same troops indefinitely in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan, where soldiers previously could not serve more than 24 cumulative months.The Pentagon will no longer limit the time a soldier can spend fighting on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military can now cycle the same troops indefinitely in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan, where soldiers previously could not serve more than 24 cumulative months.
Your support matters…AP:
Until now, the Pentagon’s policy on the Guard or Reserve was that members’ cumulative time on active duty for the Iraq or Afghan wars could not exceed 24 months. That cumulative limit is now lifted; the remaining limit is on the length of any single mobilization, which may not exceed 24 consecutive months, [Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter] Pace said.
In other words, a citizen-soldier could be mobilized for a 24-month stretch in Iraq or Afghanistan, then demobilized and allowed to return to civilian life, only to be mobilized a second time for as much as an additional 24 months. In practice, Pace said, the Pentagon intends to limit all future mobilizations to 12 months.
Members of the Guard combat brigades that have served in Iraq in recent years spent 18 months on active duty — about six months in pre-deployment training in the United States, followed by about 12 months in Iraq. Under the old policy, they could not be sent back to Iraq because their cumulative time on active duty would exceed 24 months. Now that cumulative limit has been lifted, giving the Pentagon more flexibility.
Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
Opinion
Where’s the headline-making outrage over the never-ending travesty of Gitmo?
Opinion
We both have the same enemies but spend most of the time ignoring that fact.
Wounds of War
Remembering the day that a war designed never to end began.
Global Voices
Crisscrossed by heroin transit routes from neighboring Afghanistan, the country’s youth confront a growing opioid epidemic.
Courts & Law
UN special rapporteur Fionnuala Ní Aoláin noted that the US treatment of detainees was “cruel, inhuman and degrading.”
Middle East
Amid a severe drought, Afghan scientists are asking the international community to engage with the brutal new regime.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.