[Peace-discuss] Resrves called up for War

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

WASHINGTON (Jan. 6) - The Army has alerted more than 10,000 part-time troops 
to prepare for active duty and movement overseas beginning as early as this 
week to support a U.S. military build-up near Iraq, Army officials said on 
Monday.

The Reserve and National Guard soldiers, including engineers and intelligence 
specialists, were told in recent days that they could be rapidly deployed 
between Jan. 10 and late February, the officials told Reuters.

The alert came as the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort sailed out of the port 
of Baltimore, Maryland, for the Gulf region to prepare to handle casualties 
in any invasion of Iraq ordered by President Bush.

An Army Reserve spokesman would not be specific about the new deployment. But 
other Army officials said most of the troops were likely to go to the Gulf, 
where the military is moving quickly to at least double the nearly 60,000 
U.S. troops now there for a possible war with Iraq.

Albert Schilf, a spokesman for Army reserve forces commander Lt. Gen. James 
Helmly, confirmed a report in USA Today that the part-time troops from dozens 
of units had been told to prepare for active duty and movement.

"They've been alerted," Schilf told Reuters, adding that the activation was 
also likely to include military police and civil affairs specialists.

There are currently about 55,000 U.S. Reserve and National Guard troops from 
all of the military services on active duty - most of them in the United 
States - as part of a mobilization sparked by the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on 
America.

MARINES, WARSHIPS, AIRCRAFT

Since the new year began last week, the Army has begun to deploy more than 
11,000 soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division in Georgia as well as hundreds 
of engineers and intelligence specialists from Germany to the Gulf in a new 
surge of troops, warplanes and ships.

Bush stressed from his ranch in Crawford, Texas last week that he had made no 
decision on whether to invade Iraq over U.S. charges that Baghdad is 
developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. But he has repeatedly 
warned that such a move may become necessary despite denials from Iraq that 
it is developing such weapons.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has signed at least two orders 
for a major surge of troops, aircraft and ships to the Gulf.

Last week, the Pentagon ordered some units of the 45,000-member U.S. 1st 
Marine Expeditionary Force to deploy from California to the Gulf region. 
Other Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, are also expected to go in 
coming weeks.

The ground forces ordered to deploy so far are far short of the more than 
250,000 U.S. troops sent to the region for the Gulf War. While any invasion 
of Iraq would be likely to include initially far fewer than a quarter-million 
American troops, the current shift could grow more rapidly in January and 
February.

The U.S. Navy already has one aircraft carrier in the Gulf and one in the 
Mediterranean and said last week that two additional carriers could soon join 
them near Iraq.

In addition to about 150 strike and support aircraft aboard two extra 
carriers, Rumsfeld's orders included preparations to send units from five 
wings of Air Force strike jets, heavy bombers and unmanned spy drones.

U.S. officials said the Pentagon had also alerted the 101st Airborne 
Division, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, along with troops from the 1st 
Armored Division and 1st Infantry Division in Germany for possible deployment.