The Daily Background

The Associated Press reported yesterday that two more soldiers deaths in Iraq were being investigated for evidence of friendly fire (originally the parents of the soldiers, who died in February, were told that they had died in an enemy attack). E&P reports however on a more sinister element to the story:

One of the soldiers died just hours after arriving in Iraq — and was one of those troops rushed to the country in the “surge” who did not receive full training.

The Army said it is investigating the deaths of Pvt. Matthew Zeimer, 18, of Glendive, Mont., and Spc. Alan E. McPeek, 20, of Tucson, Ariz., who were killed in Ramadi, in western Iraq on Feb. 2. The families of the soldiers at first were told they were killed by enemy fire.

And you thought Murtha’s insistence on fully training the troops was merely an attempt at blocking the escalation. In fact, it has a more practical side to it: untrained troops may be shooting or getting shot by fellow untrained troops, whose deployments were accelerated to match the President’s escalation. Speaking of Murtha, here’s part of an unrelated statement he made yesterday before this report came out:

I have just been informed that the 4th Infantry Division is preparing to deploy to Iraq with only eight months at home and without the appropriate training. This is unacceptable.

The stress on our military due to the manner in which the President has waged the war in Iraq is no longer tolerable. Due to continuous and extended deployments to Iraq, our military is running out of troops and equipment and is being forced to abandon its own rotation and deployment guidelines in order to sustain the President’s war plan.

Here’s more from the E&P article:

“The fact some of the brigade’s 4,000 soldiers missed that training raises questions about how well the Army is preparing troops for war in the face of accelerated and repeat deployments.”

Two days before that, the same newspaper reported that “some Iraq veterans in the 1st Brigade have expressed concerns about their younger counterparts missing the mission rehearsal. ‘The training was good but some guys came in after that. They’re basically going straight from basic training into Iraq,’ said Staff Sgt. Jason Massey last month, before saying goodbye to his family for a third combat tour.”

Filed under: Iraq Related, Z-TDB Blog