Bush must be frustrated that he has not completely destroyed the military yet, so he has upped the ante.

Beginning immediately, all active-duty Army soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will serve 15-month tours — three months longer than the usual standard, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

It was the latest move by the Pentagon to cope with the strains of fighting two wars simultaneously and maintaining a higher troop level in Iraq as part of President Bush’s revised strategy for stabilizing Baghdad.

Officials on Monday said some 13,000 National Guard troops were receiving orders alerting them to prepare for possible deployment to Iraq — meaning a second tour for several thousand of them.

Many of these soldiers are looking at their fourth, or even, fifth Iraq tours. They are tired, they are homesick, man of them are suffering from physical or mental impairments, and yet they are still expected to enter the most dangerous place on earth simply because they managed to survive their last tours.

It seems the only way for our brave soldiers to escape this deadly merry -go-round is to desert or die. And would any of us blame them if these men and women decided to preserve their lives by running away rather then to face death for the third, or fourth time in the deserts of Iraq? I certainly wouldn't!