The limits of SysAdmin

■"Pentagon Says Iraq Effort Limits Ability to Fight Other Conflicts: Chairman of Joint Chiefs Tells Congress of Risks," by Thom Shanker, New York Times, 3 May 2005, p. A1.

■"Pentagon's Plan to Transfer Troops Is Faulted by Panel: A concern whether forces could respond quickly in a crisis," by David S. Cloud, New York Times, 5 May 2005, p. A19.

■"Military Base Closings Will Sting, Panel Chairman Says: An independent commission promises a 'reality check' of the Pentagon's wish list," by Eric Schmitt, New York Times, 4 May 2005, p. A16.

The push to get out of Iraq is getting serious, as I don't think Chairman Myers testimony on his way out the door was in the same backward-glancing manner of Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki last year on the question of troop levels in Iraq. I think Myers is voicing the same concern I hear when I visit military commands down in Florida: the sense that if the White House wants further actions in the Global War on Terror, it better figure out how to make the SysAdmin load lighter in Iraq.

Same basic logic drives the report of the Overseas Basing Commission: that sense of being so heavily concentrated in the Middle East when there's still unfinished business of the most crucial sort in Northeast Asia. Expect the Pentagon to begin arguing for a diminished role in the region as it anticipates a build-up toward an inevitable showdown with North Korea.

Meanwhile, expect Congress to engage in all sorts of idiotic arguments to stave off base closings in their states and districts. Isn't it amazing how congressmen and women who don't know their elbows from their a--holes on defense get all uppity on the Pentagon's judgement whenever their slices of the pork pie are put at risk? "Reality check" my ass.