How to Get More Boots on the Ground

Dec. 21, 2006 — -- Colby Buzzell has been out of harm's way for almost two years.

Safe at home in Los Angeles, the 30-year-old former Army specialist isa long way from Mosul and the constant threat of improvised explosive devices and sniperattacks.

But Buzzell still worries about returning to the Iraqi battlefield,especially when he hears President Bush talk about increasing the sizeof the U.S. military by almost 50,000 troops.

"I've been out for a while, but I get nervous when I hear that," saysBuzzell. "Because how are they going to do that? I've seen friends wholeft the Army getting called back. They call it the inactive readyreserves."

Buzzell fears that the push to boost the size of the nation's armed forceswould involve expanded use of measures like the Inactive Ready Reserves (or Individiaul Ready Reserves) as well as extending the length ofdeployments for active-duty soldiers.

Since the president revealed his plan Tuesday, active and retiredsoldiers have been debating the effectiveness and feasibility ofexpanding the armed forces -- and pondering what it might signify for thewar on terror.

The debate, indeed the dissatisfaction with the war, has begun to resonate more powerfully in the nation's high schools. Among the most potent issues is the Pentagon's recruiting program, which requires high schools to share students' names, phone numbers and addresses with military recruiters.

Although there is no definitive national data, some school districts have seen greater numbers of students -- and their parents -- deliberately opt out of the recruiting programs. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the number of students choosing to opt out has more than doubled in the last three years.

A Long Haul: Iraq and Beyond

Some military experts and current and former soldiers feel that the president's plan implies a sustained military presence in the Middle East for between five and 10 years, if not longer.

"They've been calling this war on terror 'the long war' and in orderto do that, they have to increase the force," explained formerparatrooper and Army officer Matthew Currier Burden. "This doesn'thave much to do with Iraq. We're at war with a pretty large segment ofthe population in the Middle East -- we should activate everybody,including the National Guard."

Burden, who runs the prominent military blog Blackfive,believes that the Army will have to maintain a presence in Iraq formany years. In Germany after World War II, "things weren't stablefor three years, and we might have to stay in Iraq for a long time," he said. "I don't know if they'll lengthen deployments -- 12 monthsis really hard on a family -- but something is going to have to bepermanent to keep the peace in that region."

Burden believes the Pentagon should be able to bulk up the armedforces by raising the recruiting goals, a ceiling determined everyyear. And indeed, the armed forces met and in some cases exceededtheir goals this year.