"TAKE AN APPETITE SUPPRESSANT"

Griping by soldiers is as old as warfare itself, but military officials say longer stays for soldiers such as Outen and Lynes, whose brigade stormed Baghdad in early April and played a major role in toppling Saddam Hussein's regime, are a symptom of an Army that is stretched too thin.

At a time when Pentagon strategists are considering cuts in the overall size of the Army, a broad range of soldiers — from senior brass in Washington to ground-pounding GIs in Fallouja — think that the Army should instead be growing to take on the expanding tasks the Bush administration has handed it.

Anecdotal evidence indicates that retention rates are already beginning to suffer in the face of the grueling Iraq duty, Army officials said on condition of anonymity.

There simply aren't enough soldiers for the job as it is, Army insiders argue.

"You've got to take an appetite suppressant, or you've got to size the force appropriately," an Army officer serving in Iraq said on condition of anonymity, adding that peacekeeping commitments posed a greater strain on the service than fighting wars. "If anything, this war shows we need a larger Army."...

The well-publicized woes of the 3rd Infantry Division appear to have given the nation's oldest armed service an edge in a battle within the Defense Department. Pentagon officials are expected to drop consideration of a plan to cut the size of the Army from 10 divisions to eight, at least for the foreseeable future, defense officials and military analysts said.

Sort of misses the point, though.

The problem is that 8 isn't too small, 10 is too small. Eight would be suicide.