Examining the details

Mac Owens at the Corner peals back the layers of mystery surrounding the Pentagon's announcement that they will begin activating Marines in the IRR to fill a shortfall of approximately 2,500 resulting from decreased re-enlistment numbers. Had I the time, I would have mentioned this yesterday as yet another reason "we're losing."

Anyway, Mac explains:

This call up isn't as bad as Reuters makes it sound. Out of a total of 59,000 members of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), the Marines MAY call up to 2,500 back to active duty for up to a year. They will not be activated all at once, but in groups of 60-100, and activation will be determined primarily by rank and military occupational specialty (MOS). What this means is that there is a short-term shortage of folks in certain critical MOSs. I doubt we are talking about involuntarily activating "thousands" of "grunts," i.e. infantrymen, and shipping them back to Iraq for a fourth tour, as the Reuters piece suggests.