Pentagon should use longer deployments as final option

By Staff
Staff Editorial
We applaud the recent comments by Army Secretary Pete Geren, who was quoted as saying he sees "no possibility of that happening" when asked if the Army planned to extend troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There has been an intense and sometimes harsh spotlight on the mental state of our soldiers, and increasing deployment time has been proven by several medical studies to decrease troop morale and increase mental illness, including depression and suicide.
There are currently 162,000 troops stationed in Iraq, and many of those soldiers have served more than one deployment in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Some units have served as many as four deployments since the War on Terror commenced, and extending deployments from 15 months to as many as two years should be final option for the Pentagon.
Defense Department officials have several unattractive options to maintain the current troop levels overseas, including bringing back the selective service draft, reducing the amount of rest between deployments or utilizing more National Guard troops.
It is our hope that Secretary Geren can stick by his philosophy or come up with a better solution in case troop levels don't decrease within the next several months.