More Army adjustment as the Sys Admin role drags on

■"Army May Reduce Length Of Tours in Combat Zones: Fear That Fall in Recruiting Could Clash With Needs in Iraq and Afghanistan," by Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, New York Times, 27 September 2004, p. A1.

■"U.S. Says More Iraqi Police Are Needed as Attacks Continue," by Walter Pincus, Washington Post, 28 September 2004, p. A23.

■"Taking On Sadr City in a Pickup Truck: Four Deaths Illustrate Vulnerability of Iraqi Forces," by Steve Fainaru, Washington Post, 28 September 2004, p. A1.

First piece is just another example of the pain the Army is feeling right now in terms of personnel. Recruitment is suffering because one-year stints in southwest Asia are not a big draw. Since Vietnam, the Army has sought to limit deployments in combat zones to six-month stretches, so both it and the Guard will see how close they can get back to that standard without screwing up the rotations too much. It won't be easy, but it's a good ideaóone I'm sure my godson will appreciate as he prepares to go over.

Obviously, it would be better to be able to backfill our troops with Iraqi police and security forces, but it hasn't been easy to get those numbers up, what with the terrorist attacks against recruitment and training centers. Adding to the difficulty, while our troops have most of what they need, the Iraqi security forces are trying to get by on the cheap. As the third story states, there's a huge disparity in the "sophisticated weaponry and armor" that the U.S. soldiers possess compared to the "vastly inferior equipment" of their Iraqi compatriots. Clearly, this does not look like a winning hand as the January elections approach, which will naturally make our efforts at internationalizing the effort all the more difficult.

We've gotten so good at employing overwhelming force (a key tenet of the Powell Doctrine) during warfare, but what we haven't mastered yet is the employment of overwhelming security during the occupation. The Sys Admin force, like the Military Operations Other Than War doctrine from which it stems, remains the stepchild inside the Pentagon. That will change and the Iraq occupation will make it so.