It is war on the cheap with part time workers (reservists and guard) saving money and profits for the gold plated defense contractors:
http://www.counterpunch.org/hallinan11062003.htmlGlitzy Weaponry Over People
Rumsfeld's New Model Army
By CONN HALLINAN
<...The US military looks increasingly like a temp agency on steroids: a massive organization of part-time workers armed with the latest in firepower.><snip>
<Since Sept. 11, 2001, some 292,000 National Guard and reserve troops have been called to active duty, and more than 190,000 are still serving. The Pentagon just announced a further call-up of 30,000. Reserve and National Guard units now make up 46 percent of the military><snip>
<The thinking behind all this is simple math: reserve and Guard troops are much cheaper than regular troops. As Christopher Caldwell at the Weekly Standard notes, "it is hard not see a similarity between the army's shift to part-time soldiering and businesses preferences for part-time vs full-time labor."><snip>
<Transformation" has essentially shifted much of the financial burden for maintaining permanent troops to the families of the reserves.><snip>