JUST FINISHED WATCHING NUMB3RS, and Buzz Aldrin had a cameo at the end. He looked good!

Buzz wrote a children’s book recently, and for good reason.

FRANK KEATING for President?

SPACE REF REPORTS that the FAA has just released its final rules governing commercial human spaceflight. I predict that the requirement that rocket pilots possess an airplane pilot’s license will one day be seen as silly, like requiring that jet pilots first learn to fly blimps.

DO WE NEED A BIGGER ARMY? Gen. Peter Schoomaker says that we do:

Schoomaker said the Army began the Iraq war “flat-footed” with a $56 billion equipment shortage and 500,000 fewer soldiers than during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. . . .

The burden on the Army’s 507,000 active-duty soldiers — who now spend more time at war than at home — is simply too great, he said. “At this pace, without recurrent access to the reserve components, through remobilization, we will break the active component,” he said, drawing murmurs around the hearing room.

The Army, which had 482,000 soldiers in 2001, plans to grow temporarily to 512,000. But the Army now seeks to make that increase permanent and to continue increasing its ranks by 7,000 or more a year, Schoomaker said. He said the total increase is under discussion.

Back in 2004, in the face of good news about recruitment and retention, I observed: “Nonetheless, I suspect that it’s a good time to be looking at enlarging the military and adjusting the force structure.”

That hasn’t been the plan, and I guess it depends on what we intend to do next. If we’re planning to cut-and-run from Iraq and hunker down, then we don’t need a bigger Army. (The problem isn’t holding onto the troops we’ve got — As Army Secretary Francis Harvey said when we interviewed him, recruitment and retention are going well. That’s a separate question from the one of how big an Army we need, but I’m afraid that if we stress the troops we’ve got too much, retention will slide, something we discuss in that interview; Harvey was sanguine, me not quite so much.) My own preference would be for a bigger Army than we’ve got, so that the stress on the troops will be lower, and we’ll have more capacity in case we need it in Iran or Saudi Arabia. The Administration hasn’t seemed to feel that way. I’m a lot less of an expert than the people running the Pentagon (I hope!) but it seems to me that returning the Army to its pre-Clinton Administration size isn’t such a bad idea.

There’s also this problem:

Compounding the problem, the Pentagon has restricted repeated involuntary call-ups, leading to deeper and deeper holes in Army Guard and reserve units. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, hundreds of thousands of reserve soldiers have been mobilized for Iraq and Afghanistan. So when a unit is called to deploy, the only soldiers who can go are volunteers and new soldiers. The remainder are often drawn from dozens of units across the United States.

Short of a very large increase in Army size, this problem won’t go away entirely — certainly an extra 30 or 50 thousand soldiers won’t make a big difference, and returning to the pre-Clinton size Army isn’t going to happen in less than several years. I had something about these issues back in 2001, in the context of Afghanistan — see this, too — but it indicates that force structure and rotation methodology matter as well as total Army size. I’m certainly not prepared to second-guess the Army on this, as repeated involuntary callups raise issues of their own, but obviously people have to weigh the costs and benefits. Are they weighing them properly? Beats me. I would have expected — in fact, I did expect — more problems with recruitment and retention than we’ve seen over such a long period of hostilities, so that suggests that they know more than I do. As they should!

UPDATE: This question — how big should the Army be — is only loosely related to the question of whether we should, as John McCain wants, send 35,000 more troops to Iraq, except insofar as this wouldn’t be such a big issue if we had a bigger Army to begin with. Whether 35,000 more troops will make a difference or not is unclear to me, and it’s a matter on which the generals themselves seem to be divided. But if we had a bigger Army, such questions would be purely a matter of utility, and not so much of institutional strain.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader emails:

Interesting that you would post this today.

Tonight my husband and I had “the” talk – and I can assure you that the spouse or loved one of any member of our military who has deployed, knows exactly what “talk” I mean.

My husband is past active duty Army, and is currently a member of the Army National Guard with one deployment under his belt. He has recently volunteered for another deployment. He’ll mobilize in the next few weeks.

Tonight we had the “If I don’t come home” discussion. We’ve had this discussion before, and knowing my husband, I’m sure we’ll have it again.

We’ve been married for 17 years, I know this man as well as I know myself. I know if I threw a hissy fit, he wouldn’t volunteer. He’d wait until his entire company was activated again…

But I can’t do that.

In his own words. “I’m a soldier, it’s who I am, it’s what I do”

Who would I be to ask him to be something that he’s not?

In our civilian life, we’re comfortable. We own our own business, we have two great kids, our home is ours, free and clear..I love our life..

But being a soldier is who he is.

Don’t ever underestimate our military. Sure, it would be great to have more troops, I’d be thrilled if he never had to deploy again. But my husband isn’t the exception, he’s much closer to being the rule. I’ve seen it over and over again, and these soldiers never cease to amaze me.

They’ll do whatever it takes – the question is – will the rest of the country?

Just some Grunts’ wife.

I’m sure they will, but it’s wrong for the rest of the country to presume on that. Meanwhile, though I linked it before, this post by Porphyrogenitus is worth noting, too. And Major Dave Lange notes another problem:

One more problem with increasing the size of the Army: where do you put all those troops? A good number of the bases where troops were stationed during the Cold War simply aren’t there anymore. Ft. Ord, CA, the former home of the 7th Infantry Division, for example, is now part of the Cal State University system. And the bases in Germany that once housed elements of 5 divisions are, or soon will be, gone, with a just a couple of exceptions.

Even going halfway back to the roughly million-man Army we had during the Cold War would mean adding another 250,000 troops, requiring another 5-10 major installations. Not sure where you’re going to find that-and when you do expect enviro-socialists to protest turning the habitat of the southern tigerspotted swamp tree newt into a tank range. And people who don’t want to live next to the sounds of gunfire and artillery, or low flying helicopters.

Like our other problems, this is not insoluble — but it requires people to work on solving it.

MICKEY KAUS: “Lt. Col. Bateman’s post on Media Matters ‘ Altercation–disputing Associated Press in the ongoing controversy over the alleged burning of six Sunnis in Baghdad–seems quite damning. Eric Boehlert’s response–‘Hey, I’m not defending the AP on this, just attacking the AP’s attackers!’–seems quite weak. “

JON STEWART AND DENNIS MILLER: Video. “I wish this could take the place of Hannity and Colmes.”

A CURE FOR DIABETES?

In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body’s nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians.

Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. “Mice with diabetes suddenly didn’t have diabetes any more.”

Don’t get too excited yet, but let’s hope this pans out. If it does, we’ll have to wonder what else we’ve been missing in diseases we thought we understood.

1.5 MILLION WITHOUT POWER in the Northwest. They probably can’t read it, but here’s a blackout survival guide and some guidelines on home generator safety, from Popular Mechanics.

Some former neighbors of ours lost a child due to carbon monoxide from an improperly located emergency generator back during the Memphis blackout a few years back. Generators are good, but they’re dangerous if not used properly.

Earlier posts on this topic here and here. Also here.

IRANIAN ELECTIONS MARRED BY BOMB BLASTS: Reader C.J. Burch emails: “Perhaps the government of Iran should move to Okinawa.”

That works for me.

HEY, MAYBE I should run for President! “Running for president, however, is absolutely the best job in the world. And the government will pay you to run.”

UPDATE: Kucinich’s running mate spotted.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Whaddya know, I forgot I was already nominated!

A LOOK AT EVENTS IN IRAQ, from IraqPundit.

“WHEN IS NBC NEWS GOING TO PRONOUNCE civil war in ‘Palestine’?”

There is a simple answer to this question, which I leave as an exercise for the reader.

UPDATE: Carl in Jerusalem isn’t waiting.

HOW LIKELY IS A NUCLEAR ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES? How likely does it have to be?

A LOOK AT POLITICAL ART AS A FAILURE OF DISCOURSE, from Fernando Tesón.

IRAQI INSURGENTS BROADCASTING TV OUT OF SYRIA: Another reason to wonder why the Bush Administration has taken such a hands-off approach with Assad.

THIS WEEK’S BLOG WEEK IN REVIEW is up, with special guests Scott Johnson and John Hinderaker of Power Line.

ARMING TEACHERS IN NEVADA?

Now, a Nevada lawmaker wants to put more weapons on school property — not in the hands of students, but in the hands of their teachers and school staff.

State Senator Bob Beers believes guns in the hands of highly trained, law-abiding citizens can serve as a deterrent to criminal activity. And what better place to stop crime than in the classroom, he told the I-Team in an exclusive interview.

Clark County School District police find a shotgun on a student that classmates characterize as having an anger problem. The “what-ifs” of the situation aren’t hard to imagine. Images from Columbine High School have become part of the American collective consciousness.

But where gun control has failed, Bob Beers believes gun proliferation may succeed. The republican senator for Clark County said, “The theory is that insane people don’t go on shooting sprees around people who have weapons.”

Beers plans to submit a bill draft this week to allow school personnel to carry concealed firearms on campus provided teachers, principals and even bus drivers complete weapons training that, in his words, would exceed law enforcement training standards.

We’re seeing more and more proposals like this.

UPDATE: See this post from Donald Sensing, too.

YEAH, LIGHT BLOGGING — I’ve been a bit under the weather today.

TECH BLEG: Does anybody out there have any experience with this wireless laser printer from HP?

I’m pretty happy with the performance of my HP wireless inkjet, but the ink is expensive, the ink cartridges are small, and I don’t like to use it for big jobs, which alas I still have even in this allegedly paperless era. But I’m usually on a laptop, so it’s wireless or nothing. The wireless laser looks reasonably priced; will it be as reliable as the inkjet? And will the two of them play well together on the same network?

HERE’S A REPORT THAT Prince Bandar wants a military response to Iran.

REMEMBERING THE WHITE ANIMALS: That was a great band; I saw them many times in Nashville and in DC. They still play occasionally, and they’ve got a website that sells their CDs online. A lot of their stuff is available for free download, too. Check out their signature song, “Ecstasy,” here.

THE DUKE RAPE ACCUSER has given birth. Thanks to the DNA evidence, all we know for sure is that none of the defendants can be the father.

UPDATE: Check the updates at the link above.

AHMET ERTEGUN HAS DIED.

BREAST CANCER RATES FALL SHARPLY: That’s good news.