President George W. Bush called for sending an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq to quell the sectarian violence there. Announcing his “new strategy” to the nation on January 10, the President took responsibility for mistakes in the war and called the situation “unacceptable.”

The President blamed the recent failures to secure Baghdad on a lack of troops and the restrictions placed on the troops there. The majority of troops to be sent to Iraq—equaling five brigades—will be deployed in Baghdad with the mission of helping Iraqis clear and secure neighborhoods, protect the local population and ensure that the Iraqis left behind “are capable of providing the security that Baghdad needs.”

The President also ordered 4,000 troops to Anbar Province, a possible safe haven for al Qaeda, to work with local tribal leaders who “have begun to show their willingness to take on al Qaeda,” the President said.

In addition, he is increasing the number of embedded American advisers and doubling the number of provincial reconstruction teams. He is also deploying an additional carrier strike group, the USS Stennis Carrier Strike Group, to the region.

Along with the new strategy within Iraq, the President called for an increase in the size of the active Army and Marine Corps. The day after the President’s address, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that the Army and Marine Corps will grow by 92,000 in the next five years, with the Army increasing by 65,000 and the Marine Corps by 27,000. What had been a temporary increase of 30,000 for the Army (as announced in October) will be made permanent, meaning the Army will only need an increase of 35,000 for an end strength of 547,400. The Army currently has an end strength of 512,400.

For the first time, the President declared that America’s commitment is not open-ended. He set benchmarks for the Iraqi government, and he listed a number of initiatives Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government planned to take, including a deployment of Iraqi army and national police brigades across Baghdad and a tougher stance against sectarian violence. He also listed the benchmarks: passing legislation to share oil revenues among Iraqis; spending $10 million of its own money on reconstruction and infrastructure projects; holding provincial elections later this year; reforming de-Baathification laws; and establishing a fair process for considering amendments to Iraq’s constitution. “If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises,” the President warned, “it will lose the support of the American people—and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people.” The President did not, however, mention any specific consequences.

While the President did acknowledge the Iraq Study Group and incorporated some of its recommendations into his new strategy, he refused one of its more controversial points: engaging Syria and Iran in talks to stabilize the region. The President, instead, accused the two countries of “allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq,” and explained that American forces are interrupting the flow of support coming from the two countries. He specifically focused on Iran for providing material support in Iraq and said he would work “with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating the region.”

The increase in troops in Iraq began the day after the President’s address as the 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division moved from Kuwait, where it was serving as the “call forward” force, into Iraq. That same day, the Pentagon announced that the Minnesota Army National Guard’s 1st Brigade, 34th Infantry Division, already in Iraq, would extend its stay until July 2007.

While the Pentagon previously announced the deployment of the 4th Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) before the President’s address, the Department of Defense added the following units: 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), to deploy in March; 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division to deploy in April; 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) to deploy in May; and 3rd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Regiment, to deploy to the Middle East region.

The Pentagon also said that other combat support and combat service support units will be deployed once the new requirements are assessed.

While increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps will help rotations in the long run, the troop increase will put a strain on both the active Army and the reserve components (RC). To address that issue, the DoD announced: future deployments will be managed on a unit basis, instead of on an individual basis; maximum mobilizations will be reduced from 18 months to a year; select Guard/Reserve units will be remobilized sooner than the one-to-five ratio (one-year mobilized to five-years demobilized); active and RC force individuals will be compensated for mobilizing or deploying earlier than established policy goals of deployment to home station ratio times; and commands will be directed to review their administration of the hardship waiver program.

Even with these new changes, a Pentagon official said that National Guard leaders are worried that employers would be less likely to support Guard participation by their employees if units were sent to Iraq more often. In addition, National Guard officials have argued that their units can sustain one-year deployments every six years, but recruiting and retention could suffer under the new DoD policy.