The other shoe
Many politicians, journalists, and members of the general public reflexively refer to "our young men and women" serving in Iraq. Many of them are, but unlike the Vietnam War, when nearly all the foot soldiers were draftees in their late teens or early 20s, a fair number in Iraq are in their 30s and 40s, or even older. They tend to be members of Reserve units and especially of the National Guard. They are often married with children. And now a lot of them are going to be heading back to Iraq as part of President Bush's plan to add 20,000 troops on the ground. A plan which an ABC-Washington Post poll shows a strong majority of Americans oppose, by the way.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Pentagon has quietly reversed a policy that exempted Army National Guard units which did a tour in Iraq from overseas deployment again for five years. Why? They don't have anywhere else to turn for "fresh" troops, short of reinstituting the draft, which would cause riots in the street in the unlikely event Congress approved it, or hiring foreign mercenaries.
Yes, I know that National Guard members know they can be sent off to war instead of providing relief during natural disasters. But I doubt that many of the men who signed up prior to the Iraq War ever envisioned the nightmare that Bush would present to them. Other than World War II, use of the Guard in overseas adventures has been limited to the post-Vietnam, volunteer Army period that began in 1973. They were used in the Persian Gulf War, but the shooting part of that conflict lasted barely a few weeks. That probably seemed tolerable risk to many. Being forced to do a second tour in the hell of Baghdad after being promised a five-year respite will seem the worst sort of betrayal.
It will be interesting to observe the reaction of elected officials like Gov. Rendell of Pennsylvania when Guard units in our state are sent back to Iraq. Will he mouth the usual patriotic platitudes, or try to put some roadblocks in the way? Those in the 20,000 will be the worst sort of cannon fodder, dumped into Iraq for no other reason, really, than to string the war along until Bush is out of office. Even I don't think Bush is nuts enough to invade Iran. He just doesn't have the troops to pull it off unless he empties Korea, Japan, and Europe of most of the U.S. forces stationed there. That would be the height of insanity.