Congressman says Iraq trip shows need for more full-time troops

Congressman Steve King was in Iraq on a fact-finding mission last weekend, and the trip reinforced his belief that it’s time to increase the number of full-time folks in the U.S. military and reduce the reliance on part-time soldiers. King says the morale of the troops in Iraq is good, but they miss their families and are concerned about their jobs and their businesses back home. King says Congress needs to act so that the part-time troops can go back home again. But King says today, there are just not enough active duty, full-time troops so that reservists and guard members can be rotated out of Iraq. King says the regular military is “stretched a little bit thin” as ranks have been reduced by 30 percent since the mid-90s. He says the time has come for a national decision to be made, and King is one of those who will favor expanding the standing military. King says some guard members have been called up so often they’ve been on duty 60 percent of the past decade. King says it is time for the U.S. to have a larger, full-time “standing” army.King says the military has ten divisions now and they’re already deployed stateside, in Korea, in Bosnia, in Afghanistan and Iraq. He says it’s just going to take more people to fulfill U.S. “obligations” around the globe.