NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Pentagon could start a call-up of as many as 10,000 U.S. National Guard soldiers by this winter to bolster forces in Iraq and offset a lack of troops from allies, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
Missions in Iraq and Afghanistan have stretched the U.S. military thin, the report said, and soldiers there still face danger every day.
One senior U.S. defense official, asked by the Journal if he had ever seen the Army stretched so thin, said: "Not in my 31 years" of military service.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to sign off later this week on a plan that would set up rotations to relieve Marine and U.S. Army soldiers stationed in Iraq, the newspaper said, citing a Pentagon official.
About 146,000 U.S. troops are serving in postwar Iraq amid mounting security threats. The U.S. death toll of 147 combat deaths has now equaled the number killed in the 1991 Gulf War.
National Guard soldiers would likely not be deployed until March or April after they complete two or three months of training, the paper said. Their lengths of service could last 12 to 16 months each including training.
The Pentagon was driven to consider calling in the troops because some U.S. allies have chosen not to send in large contingents of their own, the report said.
Twenty-one of the Army's 33 active-duty combat brigades are already in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea and the Balkans, the paper said. Three other brigades cannot currently be sent abroad, leaving nine brigades, or 45,000 troops, as relief for deployed soldiers, the report said.
Some of those forces are being held back in case they are needed near North Korea or in Afghanistan, further limiting U.S. options in Iraq, the Journal said.
Just curious - is the National Guard being calle dup for such long periods?
