New Iraq War Deployments Announced
By Spencer Ackerman
06/30/2008
11:48AM
Hot off the Pentagon presses:
The Department of Defense announced today additional major units scheduled to deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The announcement involves four brigades and two regimental combat teams consisting of approximately 33,000 personnel.The deployment window for these units will be in the early months of 2009, and all will conduct the full spectrum of operations...Specific units receiving deployment orders include:Regimental Combat Team 8, Camp Lejeune, N.C.Regimental Combat Team 6, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania National Guard.
Notice the two BCTs from the First Cavalry Division are heading back to Iraq. Their deployment suggests a certain counterinsurgency continuity, post-surge. 1CAV is one of the most important Iraq-war divisions. Under the command of Maj. Gen. (now Lt. Gen.) Peter Chiarelli -- slated to be the next vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army -- 1CAV became heavily steeped in counterinsurgency doctrine. When Gen. Petraeus selected his forces in advance of the surge, he specifically picked BCTs from 1CAV to go to Baghdad and Mosul. With Gen. Odierno, Petraeus' successor, not really explaining how he'll institute a surge-like strategy without the additional surge forces, the deployment of these two BCTs is rather conspicuous.
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