Letters to the Editor
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The Army Way
Let's dispose of the strawman that it is necessary to have vast experience in the military in order to comment on military matters.
Any person of reasonable intelligence, after a tour of one year, will have a good understanding of the way the military works. I understood it well enough myself six months in to refuse an illegal order from a superior officer given to me in the presence of witnesses -- and to make it stick. Cost him is commission. Me, just my stripes (hey, no good deed ever goes unpunished, and TANJ.)
Some people will never learn, of course, even if they serve their 20.
Here's how they'd handle it (my specialty in the Army was personnel, BTW). When assembling a unit for overseas duty, they'd simply add the requirement for off-time to all the other requirements they already consider, and simply run it through the computer programs they already use. Here's a hint for those unfamiliar with the military method: they do it using first-come first-served, a well-known, robust, and utterly simple methodology, which would have no problem with the additional constraint.
It would make assembling units a bit harder on those sending people over, and a little bit less hard on the people being sent, which is the point, right?
The Bush administration's approach to the military has been like their approach to almost everything else: use it at a faster rate than it can be replenished, and leave it for somebody else to try and repair (while they will no doubt be sniping on the sidelines to try and make sure they and their friends do not have to pay their fair share.)