The Left has been wringing its sensitive hands for months about the lack of "sacrifice" called for by President Bush for the global war on terror. For the most part, it's been bunk since the Left only wants a justification for higher taxes and more government spending across the board. However, there is one area that's getting renewed attention and is a legitimate concern. But it isn't what the Left wants to hear: our military needs to be dramatically larger.
The armed forces of the United States are too small to support the missions required of them in the post-9/11 world. In many of the situations we now face, using troops on the ground is nonnegotiable, and America has too few of them. If that assertion seems counterintuitive given the impressive performance of the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq, two numbers may help drive it home: Of the 495,000 troops in the U.S. Army, 370,000 are already deployed around the world.