Wednesday, January 10, 2007

What will a "surge" mean for the Minnesota National Guard in Iraq?

Tonight President Bush is expected to announce an immediate "surge" in the number of American soldiers in Iraq by at least 20,000. Unfortunately there aren't 20,000 uncommitted soldiers available to head to Iraq at the drop of a hat. That means to accomplish this surge, troops that are currently scheduled to rotate home are probably going to have their tours extended so that the troops that were supposed to replace them can be redeployed to wherever forces are going to be increased (primarily Baghdad it sounds like).

My prediction is that the 2,600 members of the Minnesota Army National Guard currently scheduled to return from Iraq in March are going to have their tours extended by 90+ days. Expect the announcement in the next week.

You heard it here first.

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Day by Day, by Chris Muir (updated daily)



Chris Muir is the cartoonist that I met in Kuwait. He spent two weeks in Iraq at the same time I was there in February 2007, and so thought it would relevant to showcase his work on my site. Here is a link to Chris' humorous travelogue of this Iraq trip: http://billroggio.com/archives/2007/03/arrival_alignright_v.php