[Heatseeker]

Personally I'd like to see us return to the Gulf War I troop levels of 700,000 active duty soldiers. I had thought that this administration would move in that direction upon taking office. I was certain that it would happen after 911.

There is no more putting it off: we need to stop trying to fight the war on the cheap.

I agree completely. I believe we are in only the very early stages of a war whose scale will make World War Two look like the Granada operation.

Poohbah is right, it won't happen in the present budgetary and recruiting environment. But even the Dems are on record as supporting an enlarged military (they won't be if Bush asks for it, but that's another story) and every story I've seen on recruitment says the services are all making their current targets with ease, even after all the bad news this spring. So let's change the environment.

[91B]

Thanks. I wonder if we will continue to make recruiting targets if we keep this kind of operational tempo up for very long.