Army Extends Troops Tours

The tours of about 100,000 Army troops has been extended. This will affect thos soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as, thousands more who deploy later. It will not, however, affect the Marine Corps or the National Guard or Reserve. It is believed that the troops are stretched to the limit and the extended tours are a price the Army will have to pay to sustain the troop buildup ordered in January to stabilize Baghdad and avert a U.S. defeat. They hope this will finally produce the stability in Baghdad that experts have been saying is needed before our troops can begin coming home. A Pentagon news conference said that it was too early to estimate how long the troop buildup would last but it should give the Pentagon the capability to maintain the higher force levels until next April. Some feel it is an unacceptable price for our troops and their families to pay and others say it could have a chilling effect on recruiting and the Army's ability to keep soldiers from quitting. Only time will tell about that.