Extended tours of duty will make recruiting difficult

Detroit Free Press: The upsurge in violence in Iraq, plus the departure of forces from Spain, the Dominican Republic and Honduras, has left the Pentagon little choice but to extend by four months the tours of about 20,000 U.S. troops there, including 5,000 reservists and National Guard members. This breaks a promise that no soldiers would be kept in Iraq for more than a year.
While U.S. forces continue to perform admirably, the Pentagon may be getting itself in a bind for the future. The prospect of a long and dangerous commitment in Iraq, a lack of predictability in assignments and stories of hardships for loved ones left behind are not exactly the stuff of great recruiting campaigns for these all-volunteer forces.
Shift to reserves
While U.S. military firepower and precision continued to improve after the Cold War ended, the people part of the force was substantially downsized. Bases were closed and many "active duty" troops were forgone in favor of "weekend warriors" from the reserves or National Guard. Now those forces are being called to Iraq, too, for extended tours. The Michigan National Guard's Pontiac-based 1775th Military Police Unit, for example, has been in Iraq or Kuwait since May 2003 and may not be home until August.
By failing to anticipate what U.S. forces would encounter after the "shock and awe" phase of the Iraq war, the military may have damaged its appeal as a job or career option. Now some in Congress are even daring to speak of a draft to fill the ranks, although that is unlikely.
But as it continues to pursue strategies for bringing order to Iraq, the Pentagon had better also be rethinking its recruiting strategy. What used to seem like a pretty good deal for young Americans now seems to be a risky and uncertain prospect. There are other ways to serve your country, learn a skill or earn money for college.