Part of this is the repeated deployments because the U.S. military is seriously undermanned right now. This pretty much shoots down the Republican mantra that they're strong supporters of the military. If we really want to put down the rebellions in Afghanistan (And Iraq for that matter) we need to follow the original plan set out by the U.S State Department. 350,000 troops in Iraq, and about the same in Afghanistan. To do this would mean we'd have to implement the draft again. I strongly doubt Obama would do something so unpopular. Even George W. Bush wasn't that stupid. But he was stupid enough to try to do wars on the cheap.