40,000 troops told of fall deployment

Some have served multiple tours

strength in Iraq, Afghanistan would be maintained

"The risk of overextending the Army is real," Gates told a journalism symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo. If a new crisis broke out elsewhere, he said, "we would be hard-pressed to launch a major conventional ground operation."

But Gates said the strategic risk to the United States "is far greater ... if we were to fail in Iraq."

The call-up of the National Guard for deployments to Afghanistan will draw on about 14,000 troops from Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Tennessee. In addition, the Pentagon said it had alerted more than 3,100 soldiers from the Vermont National Guard to be prepared to deploy to Afghanistan in the spring of 2010 to help train the Afghan army.

About 33,000 American soldiers and Marines are in Afghanistan, and about 155,000 are in Iraq.

The active-duty Army deployments will involve about 25,000 soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division and brigade combat teams of the 4th Infantry Division, the 1st Infantry Division, the 82nd Airborne Division, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 172nd Infantry Brigade.

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