Friday, April 17, 2009

Battalion sent to Afghanistan after 2 weeks in Iraq

"That was the message delivered to the Army's 4th Engineer Battalion just two weeks after arriving in Baghdad for what was supposed to be a year-long tour. Despite the stress caused by the unusual change of plans last month, many of the unit's approximately 500 soldiers said they realized their specialty — clearing roads of bombs and other obstacles — is more needed in the area of southern Afghanistan, where they'll likely begin patrols in a few weeks. "If we were in the frying pan, we're now heading directly into the fire," Capt. Heath Papkov, one of the unit's company commanders, said this week as the soldiers packed their gear to leave. . . . The decision underscores how military commanders are scrambling to meet President Obama's orders to draw down the U.S. presence in Iraq while deploying an additional 21,000 troops to combat the growing insurgency in Afghanistan."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-04-16-troops_N.htm

In other words, the "anti-war" president is keeping his campaign promise to pull out of Iraq . . . by transferring the troops, on short notice and insufficiently prepared, from Iraq to Afghanistan, i.e., in our soldiers' words, from the frying pan into the fire.

Where are all the "anti-war" protesters?

2 comments:

Army Wife said...

My husband is one of the many that are, "going from the frying pan to the FIRE"!!! I wish he wasn't, but I know that the 4th ENG are need there. I pray that they are safe and they ALL come home to their families. We wait for them and wait for that call saying they are fine. But I just wish is wasn't my husband and our friends going, but somebody has to do it.....

Sad Army Wife

FarRightDemocrat said...

Lots of luck and best wishes!
I hope you have people to rely on here at home.