Stretched Thin

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, argues that the US doesn't have enough military personnel "for the post-September 11 era of national security" in an op-ed piece for the Washington Times.

Hutchison does not advocate any specific solution for this problem, but I imagine some sort of mandatory service act has to be somewhere on her list of options. There already is a bill floating around Congress to reinstate the draft, and it would not surprise me if someone were to tinker with it in the coming months/years.

Sure, the military does not want untrained civilians manning helicopter gunships or tanks -- they add "no value," remember? -- but it could use some help with policing and related "constabulary duties."