US Army scrapes the bottom of the barrel to avoid a draft:

"Thousands more former soldiers could be ordered to Iraq and Afghanistan in addition to 5,600 reservists already set to be called back into active-duty service, the Army said on Wednesday.

The Army is tapping into the Individual Ready Reserve, a rarely used pool now numbering 111,000 former soldiers who remain eligible to be called to active duty for years after completing their voluntary Army commitment and returning to civilian life. Many have been out of uniform for years.

'I would think that there's going to be soldiers who, yes, will be shocked' Col. Debra Cook, head of the Army's Human Resources Command, told a briefing. "