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WaPo: Reservists May Face Longer Tours of Duty
Army leaders are considering seeking a change in Pentagon policy that would allow for longer and more frequent call-ups of some reservists to meet the demands of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior Army official said yesterday.Reservists are being used heavily to fill key military support jobs, particularly in specialty areas, but Army authorities are having increasing difficulty limiting the active-duty time of some normally part-time soldiers to a set maximum of two years, the official said. He described the National Guard's 15 main combat units as close to being "tapped out." To avoid pushing reserve forces to the breaking point, the official also said, a temporary increase of 30,000 troops in active-duty ranks that was authorized last year will probably need to be made permanent, especially if U.S. troop levels in Iraq remain high. He said significant troop levels may be required in Iraq for four or five more years. The official declined to be named because of the political sensitivity of the troop issue and the lack of decisions. But he said that the Army probably will ask Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in the next several months to change the policy on mobilization of reservists. "It's coming," he told a small group of Pentagon reporters. "I think we're going to have this discussion this spring." snip The system of reserves/national guard is the weak reed of the U. S. military. The individual reservists and guardsmen are making incredible sacrifices but on behalf of a system that isn't fair to them or the country. After Viet Nam the military thought they could use the reserves as their stay out of long ugly wars card. The shortcomings of this policy are now apparent. The regular Army and Marine Corps shoud be expanded permanently, now, if we are serious about the War on Terror. Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-01-07 |
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