RIP Volunteer Army

The regular military is now 125,000 soldiers short � a gap the Bush administration has temporarily plugged by calling more than 150,000 Army Reserve and National Guard troops into active service … There are 135,000 troops stationed in Iraq, just under half of them guardsmen and reservists. But to maintain that number another 22,000 have already been sent there and brought home dead, wounded, or medically unfit for service … The human well is drying up. Enlistment rates in the regular armed forces and the National Guard have dropped precipitously … a whopping 49 percent of soldiers stationed in Iraq say they don’t intend to reenlist … The 2004 [Draft Board] plan commits the SSS to report to the president on March 31st, 2005, that the system is ready for activation with 75 days. If they manage the task, then the first lottery could happen as early as June 15th, 2005.