Sen. Joseph Biden and another top U.S. lawmaker, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said it's premature for the United States to begin plans for withdrawing troops from Iraq."We not only don't need to withdraw, we need more troops there," said McCain.

The U.S. Army will allow recruits to sign up for just 15 months of active-duty service, rather than the typical four-year enlistment, as it struggles to lure new soldiers amid the Iraq war, a general said on Thursday. Maj. Gen. Michael Rochelle, U.S. Army Recruiting Command head, also said this was "the toughest recruiting climate ever faced by the all-volunteer Army," with the war causing concern among potential recruits and their families and the economy offering civilian job prospects.

Senior administration officials say they have opened discussions on whether to mobilize brigades of Americans beyond those already signed up for active duty or in the Reserves and National Guard. At the Pentagon and the State Department, officials have held preliminary talks on creating a Civilian Reserve, a sort of Peace Corps for professionals.

The head of the US armed forces, which face a sharp decline in new recruitment, called for more Americans to enlist in the military to defend their country from the dangers of global extremism. General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, called recruitment "a national issue" at a press conference in Washington.

The Iraq war marks the first test of the all-volunteer U.S. military during a protracted war, and Army officials have conceded that all three components of the Army likely will miss their recruiting goals for fiscal 2005, which ends Sept. 30. Some defense analysts have argued the United States may have to consider resuming the draft, abolished in 1973 during the tumult of the Vietnam War era, if the military is unable to attract sufficient numbers of recruits.

Staff Sgt. Hollis Scott Jr. has a formidable task before him. As an Army recruiter, he is under tremendous pressure to sign up more recruits. "This is an extremely tough job," Scott said. Even as recruiters fight recent allegations of unauthorized tactics used to lure prospective recruits, the military continues to encourage creative and aggressive techniques -- everything from parking an eye-catching Humvee on a high school campus to approaching young people at random on the streets.

The Army's top personnel officer acknowledged this week that the service will probably miss its recruiting goal this year, the first public admission by a senior Army official and a stark reminder of the Iraq war's impact on enlistments.

The United States has expanded its force in Iraq to 140,000 troops, the most since January and 13,000 more than five weeks ago, the Pentagon said on Thursday, amid relentless violence in Baghdad and elsewhere. Currently all or parts of 18 combat brigades are in Iraq, according to the Pentagon.

From Manhattan to Waikiki, an informal network of private attorneys seems to be coalescing around a new sign of difficult times for the U.S. military: Uncle Sam's surprise greetings to soldiers who have fulfilled their reservist obligations according to contract. The lawyers battling this phenomenon use the media's term to describe it: a "back-door draft," or conscription in all but name.

The day the Marines crossed into Iraq, Cpl. James Welter Jr. killed his first man. During his second combat tour, he earned a commendation for leadership skills and coolness under fire, but he brought a nightmare home. Now, with six weeks left in his third fighting tour, his goal is simple. He hopes to survive.