U.S. Army officers in the deserts of northwest Iraq say they don't have enough troops to hold the ground they take from insurgents in this transit point for weapons, money and foreign fighters.

There is reason to worry about the continued state of military readiness as the war in Iraq grinds on past its second year, with no end in sight. Maj. Gen. Michael D. Rochelle, the Army's chief recruiter, predicted that 2006 could be the toughest recruiting year since 1973, when the draft was ended.

The American Medical Association is concerned 3.4 million healthcare workers could become eligible for military draft, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Selective Service System's little-known contingency plan for drafting physicians, nurses and other health professionals is called the Healthcare Personnel Delivery System.

If American forces aren't pulling out of Iraq in a year, a draft will be needed to meet manpower requirements, military analysts warned Wednesday. With recruitment lagging and no end in sight for U.S. forces in Iraq, the "breaking point" for the nation's all-volunteer military will be mid-2006, agreed Lawrence Korb, a draft opponent and assistant defense secretary in the Reagan administration, and Phillip Carter, a conscription advocate and former Army captain.

The U.S. Army missed its April recruiting goal by a whopping 42 percent and the Army Reserve fell short by 37 percent, officials said on Tuesday, showing the depth of the military's wartime recruiting woes. With the Iraq war straining the U.S. military, the active-duty Army has now missed its recruiting goals in three straight months, with April being by far the worst of the three, and officials are forecasting that it will fall short again in May.

For at least the third time in eight months, the U.S. Army again has raised enlistment bonuses to all-time highs in an attempt to reverse a national recruitment shortage, a strategy some are calling misplaced.

The Army's dilemma is maintaining an all-volunteer service when volunteering means going in harm's way in Iraq. The dilemma extends to national policy. How can the United States maintain its global credibility against the Islamists, if military ranks cannot be filled by volunteers and there is no public will for a draft?

Embroiled in scandal and facing rising death tolls in Iraq, U.S. Army recruiters are facing serious challenges as they attempt to reach their goal of 80,000 new recruits by October. In a news conference at the Pentagon May 21 Maj. Gen. Michael Rochelle, head of army recruitment, said reaching recruiting goals even under the best of circumstances is challenging. "Today's conditions represent the most challenging conditions we have seen in recruiting in my 33 years in this uniform," he said.

he Army's recruiters are being challenged with one of the hardest selling jobs the military has asked of them in American history, and many say the demands are taking a toll.