WASHINGTON, 29 September 2003 — Gearing up for a long deployment in Iraq, the US military this week began offering “vacations” to troops stationed in the country for long periods. The “rest and recreation” opportunity is being offered for the first time since the Vietnam War.
It applies to soldiers who received their orders at least a year ago and aims to ease the tedium, frustration and hardship of a seemingly open-ended deployment in an alien and often-hostile environment.
“A military lives for ‘mission accomplished,’” explained Nasser, a Marine reservist who recently returned from Iraq and did not want his last name in the press. “When you’re asked to stay longer, it becomes frustrating, especially if there’s no specific timeframe.”
While American soldiers continue to be targets of almost daily attacks in Iraq, their deployment orders have gradually lengthened.
And at the beginning of September, the Pentagon decided to prolong their tours to up to a year, for both reservists and active duty personnel. But families that have been showing increasing impatience over these last weeks warn that one-year can be easily stretched to 18 months.
Reservists had been training for months before their departure and must go through a demobilization period before they are able to return home. “When it was determined that US forces were going to be spending 12-month tours in Iraq, the first thing we thought about was providing for the welfare of these forces, because providing for their welfare is improving readiness,” said Marine Corps Maj. Pete Mitchell, a spokesman for the Central Command.
According to an opinion poll published Saturday by Newsweek magazine, 49 percent of the Americans believe Washington should reduce the number of its troops in Iraq and start bringing them home. But 51 percent of them said the forces should be reduced only if they were replaced with foreign troops.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said a new draft resolution on Iraq should be completed “in the next two days” to allow more international troops to take part, “Within the next two days we’ll come up with a second version of the resolution, based on the consultations we had last week. We’ll get to share that with our friends on the Security Council,” he told ABC.
