The Kitsap Pundit

The Pentagon has a message for its troops serving in war zones: America Supports You.

That’s the name of a new campaign, introduced Friday at the Pentagon by Charlie Abell, principal deputy under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

...

“We’re going to go to Americans and say, ‘Join our Web site. Tell us what you’re doing to support the troops.’ The second part is we’re going to take the info to the troops.

“We have a myriad of ways to talk to the troops, to provide information, and we’re going to use them all,” Abell said.

Barber said she also would be attending a taping of Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime talk show that will have a segment dedicated to the program ...

No, I have no snide comment at this point. Rather, the Pentagon has further news.

Commanders in Iraq probably will expand their troops by several thousand as the January elections approach, the No. 2 commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Friday. Lt. Gen. Lance L. Smith told a Pentagon news conference that no final decisions have been made and that the size of the troop increase will depend in part on whether the insurgency grows or weakens in the aftermath of the Fallujah offensive, which he called a major success.

Smith estimated that commanders would ask for about a brigade's worth of extra troops, which would be roughly 5,000. He said that probably would be achieved by keeping some units that were scheduled to serve 10 months in Iraq for an extra two months. He did not name the units.

There now are about 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, he said.

I understand now why they are making an extra effort to improve morale.

# posted by Al Hedstrom @ 16:36