I'm not saying this to start a flame war here, just a statement of fact.

I'll even pre-empt the argument I'm sure to get right now....Yes, the guard and reserve were called up under Bush the first for Desert Storm.

It was under the Reduction In Force plans that were heavily augmented by the Clintion administration that changed doctorine to rely more heavily on the guard in reserves in times of war. I played a miniscule (I mean really very small) part in writing some of that doctorine when I served as a Liaison Officer. The cold war model was put to bed, and a new lighter, faster (read...cheaper to maintain) model of placing the burden on part time soldiers was implimented.

Every time I see a gripe that we went into Iraq understaffed I can't help but think to myself "Well...If we still had thirty divisions that wouldn't be a problem would it?"

Under the Clinton administration (and again, statement of my observations, not meant to incite political debate) I saw approximately half of the military drawn down while our operations tempo doubled. That means four times the workload per service member from our cold war numbers.