When the president said he was giving his best to the troops I thought it was supposed to be a good thing. Now we know what he really meant.

So If Gates says thats recruiting has been so successful why are the troops being forced to be in harms way for longer periods of time. Moral has got to be at an all time low.

Gates: Army tours extended by three months

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Tours of duty for members of the U.S. Army will be extended from 12 months to 15 months effective immediately, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Wednesday.

"What we're trying to do here is provide some long-term predictability to our soldiers and their families," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.
In exchange for the extension, Gates said the service will be able to give all units a year at home between deployments.

He denied the order was a sign that the Army has passed its breaking point under the stresses of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the service has met or passed its recruiting and retention goals.

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Lets see if I understand this. There's a war in Iraq and Afganistan, but we have a volunteer military. Recruiting goals are being met, the only people complaining are the liberals, and liberal media circus. I don't see massive demostrations and AWOLS from the military personnel. I mean you always have a few in the military that whimp out, even in peace time. But I haven't seen anything serious happen. I guess I'm going to chalk this one up as a liberal spin by CNN.

You can try that, but sense its on the right wing Faux News, your grapsing.

""I'll be very blunt. Some very thoughtless person in this building made the unilateral decision yesterday to deny the Army the opportunity to notify unit commanders who could then talk to their troops 48 hours before we made a public announcement." "What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, extending tours of duty was 'unacceptable' to the President. Today, it is Pentagon policy."

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"Today's announcement just underscores the fact that the burden of the war in Iraq has fallen upon our troops and their families," said House Speaker [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. , D-Calif. "Extending the tours of all active-duty Army personnel is an unacceptable price for our troops and their families to pay."

"What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, extending tours of duty was 'unacceptable' to the President. Today, it is Pentagon policy. American troops and taxpayers are paying the price for a war with no end in sight," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.


Liberals are the only ones crying about it. I wouldn't expect anything else from the DIMS.

Didn't you retire from the Airforce? Did you ever get deployed? Have ever been out on manuevers? The military have a hard job. I won't deny this anouncement won't lower morale. But these men and women are in the United States Military. It's not a 9-5 job. You liberals act like the only responsiblity the military has is provide college money for kids. They have a bigger purpose.

Cav, I guess time has proven you wrong again....

Proven me wrong about what?

Bleh, Army past the breaking point, just drop the whole Corps in there with some SEALs for good killing measure and they can mop that place up in 4 months. But that would require a spine. No one else realizes that these people are like children, the more terrorism the more we recede. Someone needs to sit them down with my friend(500lb bomb) and explain to them, "NO NOT YOURS." They may have the oil but that has proven to be a world resource, not a middle east resource. If those hodjies werent sitting on it the entire place would be worthless. How would it seem if suddenly they start claiming the oceans? They're a world resource also. Just like trying to prevent air pollution, another world resource. If the oil stopped pumping tomorrow the world would shut down in hours.

And if we killed every living soul over there, that would make us "Hitler". And would start a Nuke war. China and Russia would get involved and then we'd either all be dead, or the oil would be so contaminated that we and no one else could refine it. REAL SMART!!!!!!

Who said anything about killing every living thing? From what I gather it sounds like you are all for giving them whatever they want. Maybe if we blow up a few mosques that these "insurgents" run into it would level the playing field. But no, you don't want a military to do what it is supposed to. Now why don't you look at who Russia and China's biggest trading partners are, then you can get back to me. They may write a strongly worded letter, but both of those countries have committed far more atrocities against their own people.

So who do we kill?!!