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The problem is that bringing additional divisions online and up to strength takes a lot of time. Even if you increase recruitment, you still need the cadre of NCO's and officers to staff it. And it takes years to create those guys.

The real question is whether we anticipate the current need for large numbers of infantrymen to continue for the next several years. Personally, I don't. I'd bet we'll have significantly fewer U.S. troops in Iraq by this time next year, and the number will continue to drop. The current manpower crunch will be easing significantly right about the time the first of those two divisions are coming on line.

The problem is that bringing additional divisions online and up to strength takes a lot of time.

Agree. But we don't need more divisions. We need more infantrymen on the ground. Filling out units to full strength or adding an extra platoon per company or an additional company per battalion can be done very quickly. Adding battalion size elements would take more time, but still much less than "years".

we [don't] anticipate the current need for large numbers of infantrymen to continue for the next several years

I also think it is likely we will be drawing down in Iraq and need less there, but it is not a certainty. The same with Afghanistan. And given the world as it is, the likelihood of us being in significant land combat somewhere I think is much higher than the likelihood of us being in any reasonably stressful air or sea warfare scenario. We should restructure our military weighted toward the forces we will most likely need--and that is land forces. Even if some of those forces are comprised of the life-forms known as "jarheads"!