Army in Dire Straits

In case you didn’t hear, there’s a war going on. And, naturally, wars need troops. Unfortunately for us, our already taut military continues to feel the strain of not one, but two protracted engagements. Thus, they’re reaching out to the National Guard for reinforcements.

The New York Times reports:

“The continuing frequent deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have stretched the U.S. Army so thin that there are few brigades ready to respond to crises elsewhere,” said Lynn Davis, a senior analyst in the Arroyo Center, a division of the RAND Corporation that does research for the Army.

Ms. Davis said that there was no quick fix for the limited number of troops. The longer-term solution, she said, was to rely more on the National Guard or to increase the number of Army brigades, a move that would cost billions of dollars.

We can think of a more practical quick fix: stop kicking people out because they’re gay. Just a suggestion.