The Bush administration plans to announce next week that U.S. soldiers’ combat tours will be reduced from 15 months to 12 months in Iraq and Afghanistan beginning later this summer, The Associated Press has learned.
The decision, expected to get final, formal approval in the days ahead, comes as Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, prepares to deliver a progress report to Congress next week on the improved security situation there. He is also expected to make recommendations for future troop levels.
A senior administration official said Friday that plans are to deploy soldiers for 12 months, then give them 12 months rest time at home. Exactly which units would be affected is not yet clear. The official spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates made the decision to extend deployments from 12 to 15 months last year, because that was the only way the Army could provide enough troops for the Bush-ordered military buildup aimed at quelling the violence in Baghdad.
Ever since, Gates; Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff; and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said they wanted to go back to 12 month tours as soon as possible.
Casey has pushed shorter deployments to reduce the strain on troops battered by long and repeated tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that goal has been hindered by the security demands in Iraq.
Officials have been publicly tightlipped in recent days about the move to reduce the tours.
Gates said Friday he expected a decision by President Bush “fairly soon” on the Army’s proposal. But he also cautioned that cutting troops’ time on the battlefront will impose limits on what the military can do in the future.
“So I think the bottom line is, we’re all still looking at that. But I think we’ll have a better idea of what we think we can do, what we ought to do, in the fairly near future,” Gates told reporters Friday.
What the future holds for troops in Iraq will become clearer when Petraeus goes before congressional committees Tuesday.
I am so glad they are doing this. Fifteen months is just too long. A 12 month tour is much more reasonable when the guys are looking at multiple deployments.