Bloomberg September 17, 2004
Pentagon Plans U.S. Reserve, Guard Troop Call-up, Kerry Says
By Tony Capaccio
Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said President George W. Bush has a secret plan to call up more National Guard and Reserve troops after the Nov. 2 election. A Bush spokesman said Kerry made a ``baseless attack.''
``He won't tell us what Congressional leaders are now saying, that this administration is planning yet another substantial call- up of reservists and Guard units immediately after the election -- hide it from people through the election, then make the move,'' Kerry said during a campaign speech in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The U.S. has about 138,000 troops in Iraq, including 46,00 Army Reservists and National Guard. Kerry, in a speech to the National Guard Association yesterday, said Bush's sending Guard troops to Iraq amounts to a ``backdoor draft'' that he would end if he's elected.
``It's just another baseless attack from Senator Kerry,'' White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters traveling with Bush to a campaign stop in Charlotte, North Carolina. ``He's struggling to explain his incoherent position on Iraq.''
Kerry spokesman David Wade said the four-term Massachusetts senator got his information on Bush's mobilization plans from Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House defense appropriations subcommittee that controls defense spending.
Situation `Deteriorating'
``Now, as the situation in Iraq is deteriorating, the administration is planning to call up additional Guard and Reservists -- again with inadequate notice,'' Murtha said in a statement today. ``Our forces are inadequate to support our current worldwide tempo of operations.''
U.S. and Iraqi security forces have struggled to quell attacks by insurgents across Iraq since Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's administration took sovereignty on June 28.
As of today, 1,024 U.S. military personnel and three Defense Department civilian workers have been killed in Iraq, 886 of them since Bush declared major combat over in May, 2003, according to the Defense Department.
Murtha said Pentagon officials told him that ``at the beginning of November, the Bush administration plans to call up large numbers of the military Guard and Reserves, to include plans that they previously had put off to call up the Individual Ready Reserve.'' Murtha didn't name the officials or provide details.
The Pentagon announced in July that it intended to call back to duty about 5,600 Individual Ready Reserve members, discharged military personnel who haven't served at least eight years of active duty.
Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to comment on Murtha's or Kerry's remarks.
Troop-Rotation Plans
The Pentagon's troop-rotation plans include retaining as many as 138,000 troops through 2005, Lieutenant General Norton Schwartz, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress July 7. The rotation would include two National Guard units -- the 42nd Infantry Division, from New York and 256th Infantry Brigade from Louisiana, Schwartz told a House Armed Services Committee hearing.
The New York division is scheduled to deploy to Iraq in December. The Louisiana brigade in January has part of the 3rd Infantry Division.
The third major troop rotation planned for U.S. forces in Iraq reflects an administration shift over how many troops are needed, said John Pike, an analyst at defense research group GlobalSecurity.org. ``It's one additional indicator of growing realism by the administration on how the war's going,'' Pike said.
There's little chance the administration can order a surprise troop rotation to Iraq because this requires funding approval from Congress, said David DiMartino, spokesman for Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. He said no such request has been sent to the Senate.
The Pentagon hasn't discussed troop rotations for 2006 and beyond, Venable said.
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