As much as I hate quoting from WSWS, I think this one is at least worth a read:
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Iraq troop rotation plan: Pentagon prepares for next warWSWS, by James Conachy,1/13/04http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jan2004/rota-j13.shtmlOver 250,000 US soldiers will leave or arrive in Iraq between now and the end of May in the largest rotation of troops in a combat zone that has been attempted by the American military since World War II. The risks of the massive movement of personnel and hardware are considerable and its implications, given the record of the Bush administration, are ominous. The rotation is designed to allow six battle-hardened US Army divisions that have been worn out by lengthy deployments in 2003 to rest, refit, and be combat-ready again as early as September.
...
The Pentagon estimates that some 39,000 of the new troops {ie: those rotating
into Iraq, rather than
out} -- close to 40 percent of the total force -- will be National Guard or reservists. Over 15,000 National Guard infantry are being sent for 12-month's frontline duty in some of the most volatile areas of the country such as Baghdad, Mosul and cities in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" such as Tikrit.
The active Army is therefore only contributing 45,000 to 50,000 troops to Iraq during this year -- the number the Bush administration had based its plans around {see: Rumsfeld's prewar estimates of "50,000 troops" for Iraq}.
...
The logistical preconditions for another war will begin to take shape from as early as July. The rotation schedule means that by March the Army will have back in US bases the bulk of its rapid deployment force, the four division-plus XVIII Airborne Corps, which formed the backbone of the invasion of Iraq. The units will then be given four months to "reset" for use elsewhere. By September, the heavily-armored Fourth Infantry and First Armored Divisions will also have been "reset" after their Iraq deployment.
Coinciding with the Army schedule, 11 of the US Navy's 12 aircraft carrier strike groups are also currently out of service undergoing maintenance or post-maintenance training. All of them will be available for deployment by mid-2004.
In the months leading up to the US presidential election, the White House will have both the fleet and 120,000 battle-experienced troops to attack the next target in the "war on terror". The American soldiers occupying Iraq will be left to be killed and wounded to protect this earlier conquest, one suspects in ever-greater numbers.
(much, much more) -----
MDN
(note to mods: this is a *long* article ... I tried to whittle it down to the bare essentials, but feel free to edit further if this is still too big of an excerpt)