(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-24 09:59

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because discussions on the proposal are still preliminary, said the move by this summer to 12-month tours is what the military wants and needs to be doing.

There are 158,000 US troops in Iraq -- including 17 Army combat brigades and two Marine regimental combat teams. There are about 28,000 US forces in Afghanistan, including two combat brigades. A brigade is roughly 3,500 troops.

Gibbons said the new proposal assumes that commanders will maintain 15 combat brigades in Iraq and two in Afghanistan.

But, he noted, "You're just one request for forces away from all that math changing."

The proposal does not appear to affect the five additional brigades sent to Iraq early last year as part of the military buildup ordered by President Bush. Those units are expected to begin coming home in March or April, and should all be out of Iraq this summer.

As top military leaders have visited US bases and troops abroad, including recent stops over the holidays, they fielded repeated questions about the 15-month deployments from soldiers and their families.

Casey has said that as the Army increases in size it will become easier to reduce war tours and lengthen soldiers' time back at home. At the same time, Gates has said he hopes that Petraeus will be able to recommend continued troop cuts in Iraq.

Plans are to increase the total number of the Army Guard, Army Reserve and the active-duty Army by 74,000. The active-duty force alone is to grow by 65,000 to a total of 547,000.

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