Running out of Young Guns? No problem, Send Retirees.

You thought you’d paid your dues. You thought you had earned the right to a civilian life. In the words of an old commercial, “not exactly.”

“[I]t is the first time the Marines have called back personnel who have left the service.”

That’s RETIRED Marines, friends, called back into a conflict where no beachhead even exists. Marines, the “tip of spear” now bringing up the rear as 2,500 discharged Marines face recall to duty.

The Christian Science Monitor characterizes this move as a back door draft.

To my mind, this is a direct reflection of an increasingly dilapidated Army. The Marines are being called upon to make up for deficient numbers, deficient training, and deficient expertise in our core armed services cohort. Not a good sign.

One word comes to mind: overextended. The combination of overextended military strength and overextended financial obligations is a precarious one, to say the least. At least an Armageddon-like end would be quick and relatively merciful for those instantly evaporated by atomic blasts; but the present situation indicates a far more excruciating end of the American Empire as we know it.