Friday, June 13, 2003

Reserves under strain

James Hannah of the AP writes:


Anthony Fish, her husband, is one of 212,560 reservists and guardsmen on active duty, either overseas or for homeland security, according to a Pentagon count released Wednesday.

That's down from a high of 224,528 on April 30. But with no clear exit point for U.S. troops in Iraq, the number of reserves on duty may stay elevated for some time.

While reservists can be activated for up to two years, some relatives back home say deployments this year have already left them struggling financially and emotionally.

Jay Farrar, a former Marine Corps officer and now vice president and military analyst at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the situation reflects the changed nature of the military.

The Guard and Reserves have been needed for specialist functions, such as civil affairs, in recent conflicts dating back to the Balkans, he says.

"It isn't one weekend a month and two weeks a year anymore," Farrar says. "There is no such thing as a 'weekend warrior' anymore in the Guard and Reserve. These people operate so much more as part of an overall security framework."

That means more people putting lives on hold.


Sounds to me like deploying additional force to Korea is going to be hard (military people please correct me).

So, how does aWol plan to take the North Korean nukes out, anyhow? Oh, I know, patient diplomacy.