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Top
U.S. ground forces Deployment (preliminary)
Division |
Home base(s) |
Now? |
1st Armored* |
Wiesbaden, Germany; Ft. Riley,
KS |
home |
1st Cavalry |
Ft. Hood, TX |
home |
1st Infantry (Mech.)* |
Wurzburg, Germany; Ft. Riley, KS |
home |
2nd Infantry (Mech.)* |
Camp Red Cloud, S. Korea; Ft. Lewis, WA |
home |
3rd Infantry (Mech.)* |
Ft. Stewart & Ft. Benning, GA |
returning home |
4th Infantry (Mech.)* |
Ft. Hood, TX; Ft. Carson, CO |
Iraq |
7th Infantry (Light)** |
Fort Carson, CO |
home |
24th Infantry (Mech.)** |
Ft. Riley, KS (NC, SC, GA) |
home - N.G. |
25th Infantry (Light)* |
Schofield Barracks, HI; Ft. Lewis, WA |
home |
10th Mountain |
Fort Drum, NY |
Afghan. |
82nd Airborne |
Fort Bragg, NC |
home |
101st Airborne |
Fort Campbell, KY |
Iraq |
28th Infantry (N.G.) |
Harrisburg, PA |
Iraq? |
29th Infantry (Light) (N.G.) |
Fort Belvoir, VA |
home |
34th Infantry (N.G.) |
Rosemont, MN |
home |
35th Infantry (N.G.) |
Fort Leavenworth, KS |
home |
36th Infantry (N.G.) |
Austin, TX |
Iraq |
38th Infantry (N.G.) |
Indianapolis, IN |
home |
40th Infantry (Mech.) (N.G.) |
Los Alamitos, CA |
home? |
42nd Infantry (Mech.) (N.G.) |
Troy, NY |
Iraq |
1st Marine Exped. Force |
Camp Pendleton, CA |
home |
2nd Marine Exped. Force |
Camp Lejeune, NC |
Iraq |
3rd Marine Exped. Force |
Camp Butler, Okinawa, Japan |
home |
NOTE: This information is tentative, pending further research. Elements of some divisions currently based at home are deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. This table does not include separate brigades, armored cavalry regiments, or smaller units.
* Most divisions have one brigade based separately.
** The 7th and 24th Infantry Divisions are mere umbrella organizations, not intended to be deployed en masse.
SOURCES: Divisional Web sites, via army.mil, as well as strategypage.com, GlobalSecurity.org, and Washington Post
Top
U.S. war fatalities in Iraq
Month |
Monthly deaths |
Cum. deaths |
Mar. 2003 |
65 |
65 |
Apr. 2003 |
73 |
138 |
May 2003 |
37 |
175 |
June 2003 |
30 |
205 |
July 2003 |
47 |
252 |
Aug. 2003 |
35 |
287 |
Sept. 2003 |
30 |
317 |
Oct. 2003 |
43 |
360 |
Nov. 2003 |
82 |
442 |
Dec. 2003 |
40 |
482 |
Jan. 2004 |
47 |
529 |
Feb. 2004 |
19 |
548 |
Mar. 2004 |
52 |
600 |
Apr. 2004 |
135 |
735 |
May 2004 |
80 |
815 |
June 2004 |
42 |
857 |
July 2004 |
54 |
905 |
Aug. 2004 |
66 |
971 |
Sept. 2004 |
81 |
1052 |
Oct. 2004 |
63 |
1121 |
Nov. 2004 |
137 |
1258 |
Dec. 2004 |
72 |
1330 |
Jan. 2005 |
107 |
1437 |
Feb. 2005 |
58 |
1495 |
Mar. 2005 |
36 |
1531 |
Apr. 2005 |
52 |
1583 |
May 2005 |
79 |
1662 |
June 2005 |
77 |
1739 |
July 2005 |
54 |
1793 |
Aug. 2005 |
84 |
1877 |
Sept. 2005 |
48 |
1925 |
Oct. 2005 |
96 |
2021 |
Nov. 2005 |
83 |
2104 |
Dec. 2005 |
66 |
2170 |
Jan. 2006 |
61 |
2231 |
Feb. 2006 |
53 |
2284 |
Mar. 2006 |
30 |
2314 |
Apr. 2006 |
74 |
2388 |
May 2006 |
69 |
2457 |
June 2006 |
59 |
2516 |
July 2006 |
42 |
2558 |
Aug. 2006 |
65 |
2623 |
Sept. 2006 |
70 |
2693 |
Oct. 2006 |
100 |
2793 |
Nov. 2006 |
63 |
2856 |
Dec. 2006 |
105 |
2961 |
Jan. 2007 |
82 |
3043 |
Feb. 2007 |
81 |
3124 |
Mar. 2007 |
75 |
3199 |
Apr. 2007 |
102 |
3301 |
May 2007 |
121 |
3422 |
June 2007 |
98 |
3520 |
July 2007 |
75 |
3595 |
Aug. 2007 |
77 |
3672 |
Sept. 2007 |
62 |
3734 |
Oct. 2007 |
37 |
3771 |
Nov. 2007 |
35 |
3806 |
Dec. 2007 |
23 |
3829 |
Jan. 2008 |
40 |
3869 |
Feb. 2008 |
29 |
3898 |
Mar. 2008 |
37 |
3935 |
Apr. 2008 |
51 |
3988 |
May 2008 |
20 |
4008 |
June 2008 |
28 |
4036 |
July 2008 |
13 |
4049 |
Aug. 2008 |
22 |
4071 |
Sept. 2008 |
25 |
4097 |
Oct. 2008 |
13 |
4110 |
Nov. 2008 |
16 |
4126 |
Dec. 2008 |
12 |
4138 |
* so far
|
NOTE: Includes all deaths, caused by enemy forces or not. Excludes military personnel (currently 72) whose names have not been released because their next of kin have not yet been contacted.
SOURCES: strategypage.com, GlobalSecurity.org, Washington Post, Sept. 8, 2004
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Top ~ Deployment ~ Deaths in Iraq ~ Deaths in past wars ~ Books
No automatic redirect? Please click HERE to go to the new War blog page, as explained below.
April 17, 2006 [LINK]
Web site Spring cleaning
As part of my relentless, never-ending efforts to make this Web site more automated and interactive, I have begun a transition to a new blog system that will entail a slight change in Web site addresses. Unless I have slipped up somewhere, you shouldn't notice any differences in page format or functionality for the time being. In a slight departure from blogosphere custom, the blog entries on the archives pages will henceforth be listed in natural chronological order, starting with the earliest date. To me, that makes it a lot easier to review old material. For the time being, the "legacy" blog and archive pages (".shtml") will remain intact, and they will eventually have an automatic redirect to the new pages (".php"). As part of this transition, there will be feedback features in the near future, as long promised. Note that the new Macintosh & Miscellanous page serves as the residual catch-all for all blog posts that don't fit into any other categories. That means general culture, religion, music, movies, science, computer technology, and non-baseball sports. From now on, the monthly and categorical archives pages will include all blog entries, up to and including the current date. Therefore, there will be some overlap between current blog pages and archive pages. Here are the new and old addresses for the main blog categories. Please adjust the bookmarks in your Web browser accordingly, and as always, "thank you for your $upport."
One of the tradeoffs with this new system is that I will lose flexibility in making cross blog posts between more than one category. From now on, each post will appear on one, and only one blog category page. That is why you will see this blog post (classified as "miscellaneous") on the old Baseball blog page, but not the new one.
UPDATE: Another change is that for each successive day, blog posts on the central blog page will henceforth be listed from top to bottom in reverse alphabetical order of their category (wild birds first, baseball last), irrespective of what time of day they were originally posted.
Reminder: Legacy blog pages (ending in ".shtml") will not be updated after today. Please choose one of the new blog pages.
April 14, 2006 [LINK]
Retired generals want Rummy out
The dissatisfaction felt by some U.S. military commanders toward Donald Rumsfeld has been well known for some time. After all, he "declared war" on the Pentagon as part of his administrative reform campaign just before the Pentagon was attacked in 2001. What is new is how widespread the opposition to him is, and how many high-ranking officers [are among those speaking out]. Retired Gen. John Batiste says the current Defense Department leaders do not respect military professionals and have violated well-established principles of strategy. What makes his argument more credible is the fact that he turned down a promotion to become a three-star general because he so strongly disagreed with Rumsfeld's approach. In Time magazine, retired Marine Gen. Gregory Newbold blames "zealots" in the administration for launching a "needless war," and criticized Rumsfeld for "micromanaging" military operations, like LBJ and McNamara did in Vietnam. Likewise, former Central Command chief retired Gen. Anthony Zinni says we have "wasted three years" in Iraq. Yesterday's Washington Post summarized the recent critiques.
Such vociferous complaints by so many high-ranking military officers cannot be ignored, but that doesn't mean we should take them at face value either. President Bush is "standing by his man," as usual, and thankfully has not yet said that Rummy is doing a "heckuva" job. Belmont Club contends that anyone calling for Rumsfeld to step down must offer a credible alternative plan of action:
Yet notably absent from discussion is the answer to the question: change [Administration policy] to what? To more troops on the ground? To a renewed effort to bring European allies into Iraq? An accelerated withdrawal from Iraq in order to concentrate on what General Newbold called "the real threat -- Al Qaeda"? All of these are possible alternatives but only one has been formally articulated by the Administration in waiting, the Democratic Party. It is called the Real Security plan and many of Rumsfeld critics are unhappy with that as well. Unless it is the case that 'anyone will be an improvement on Rumsfeld', it is surely fair to ask: how should it be done differently. The Real Security plan has been put forward. Are there any others?
Needless to say, the Democrats' proposal is not based on strategic considerations, but is geared solely to electoral politics. I disagree that calling for Rumsfeld to resign obliges one to offer an alernative approach. Indeed, the main issue in this controversy is managerial style and policy-making process, not necessarily national strategy per se. On a related note, I saw retired Colonel Larry Wilkerson, former aide to Colin Powell (with whom he is now estranged), on C-SPAN earlier this week. He was speaking about what he regards as major strategic errors by the Bush administration in the way he is handling the war against Islamic terrorism. There was a Washington Post Style section profile of him in January, and while his criticisms are serious and well thought out, I get the sense that his dissent is based on personality clashes as much as anything.
On the op-ed page of today's Post, David Ignatius called on Rummy to resign. He thinks we need someone who can muster bipartisan support (that sounds far-fetched to me), suggesting Joe Lieberman or John McCain. I disagree; if Rumsfeld is replaced, it should be by someone who is not part of the political maelstrom in Washington.
I have long had mixed feelings about Rumsfeld. His bluntness and candor are a refreshing change of pace from the dull, mealy-mouthed norm in Washington. As I noted in January 2005, he does deserve some criticism for failing to adequately plan for postwar reconstruction in Iraq, but no one really knew what to expect. A substantial degree of improvisation was inevitable, and our troops and officers have done a very good job of learning how to fight a new kind of war without any advance preparation. Ironically, the need to carry out a war against the Islamic terrorist movements made it difficult for Rumsfeld to carry out the organizational changes in the Pentagon he thought were necessary, and after five years, almost all talk of that has vanished. That being the case, I really don't see what purpose his continued presence in the Pentagon would serve, so it's probably for the best that he should step down soon.
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