EDITORIAL
False alarm for vets indicates shortages

A shortage of trained soldiers has led to something of a scare for some Army veterans, both here and on the Mainland, as some of them are being considered for recall and deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many of these veterans had already served in these theaters and reasonably felt they had done their part.

It turns out that recruiters were operating with incorrect information. The veterans aren't being recalled — yet. But in fact, the Pentagon is taking a close look at recalling some of them — including 198 of them in Hawai'i — in the near future.

Through misunderstanding, some of these vets decided they might protect themselves from being redeployed to a war zone by signing up for Reserve or National Guard units.

The misunderstanding is twofold: first, their reactivation isn't imminent. And second, signing up for the Reserve or the Guard might be a quicker ticket to a war zone than these vets imagined. "It's less a question of 'if' than it is of 'when' " Reserve and Guard units may be called up and sent to Afghanistan or Iraq, too, said a Reserve spokesman in Atlanta.

By law, veterans who have completed their contractual term of active duty still have time left to serve in the Ready Reserve, usually another four years. Traditionally — and for good reason — these vets, who have honorably served the time they signed up for, are way down at the bottom of the list for any further active duty.

But the military has been stretched uncomfortably thin by the ongoing actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's not reason for comfort that the Pentagon is transferring 10 percent of its force from one trouble spot, Korea, to Iraq.

And veterans still in the Ready Reserve have what the Pentagon needs lots more of: training in specialties that are in acute shortage, and combat experience.

Such manpower scarcity raises a question of fundamental fairness. Before volunteer soldiers are sent involuntarily for second or third tours of combat duty, the United States must consider reinstating the draft.

It's simply not fair that these men and women are forced to do far more than their share, while millions of qualified Americans remain entirely exempt from exposure to the hazards of an aggressive foreign policy.