Word: troop
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...around it. But you’re basically talking about giving another five billion dollars a year on the medical side, and that’s about what we spend on combat in two weeks.”A failure to allocate such funds in favor of increasing troop presence would be irresponsible, said Bilmes.“It’s wrong to spend all this money necessary to do a surge when we’re not coughing up the money to help these guys when they come home,” she said.The VA itself has been...
...Baghdad or speed up training of Iraqis, it conditioned that O.K. with the phrase "if the U.S. commander in Iraq determines that such steps would be effective." When it became clear to the internationalists that the Kagan-Keane surge was winning White House attention without any calls for more troops from generals on the ground, they counter-counterattacked. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a former four-star, said a surge had been tried in Baghdad--and had failed last fall--and would only further delay Iraqis in taking control of their own security. Powell added, a little pointedly, that...
...MONTHS THE GENERALS OPPOSED increasing troop strength, chiefly because they calculated that as long as the American footprint was growing, Iraqis would never take responsibility for their own security. This continues to concern them: a former military official told TIME that Defense Secretary Gates has spent a lot of time in his first three weeks on the job trying to wrest from his military planners clear benchmarks for putting the Iraqis in charge. The chiefs hinted they would back a surge only if the goals--and the goalposts--are explicit. "We would not surge without a purpose," said Army chief...
THAT DEPENDS ON WHETHER YOU ARE AN optimist or a pessimist on the subject of Iraq. Kagan told TIME that U.S. troop force "should be down significantly" from what it is now--"enough to permit economic development, the recruiting and training of the Iraqi army, political development and reconciliation." Under this scenario, U.S. forces can turn to eradicating the insurgents full time once Baghdad is "stabilized." Not everyone buys this happy talk. "Are we assuming the insurgents don't get to vote on this?" asks a veteran of both the Iraqi and Vietnam wars. "I see more arrogance than ever...
...Then in early November, Rice fixed on Negroponte. As a longtime career diplomat, he is widely respected at State, but also considered tough-minded enough to carry out Bush's plans for Iraq and apparent intention to beef up the U.S. troop presence there. "He's a diplomat's diplomat," Rice spokesman Sean McCormack said. "He is somebody who is a close colleague to the Secretary. She has a very good working relationship with him. He has the confidence of the President...