Two Items From Page 25 of Your Chicago Sun-Times

U.S. keeps mentally ill at war front

U.S. military troops with severe psychological problems have been sent to Iraq or kept in combat, even when superiors have been aware of signs of mental illness ***

The Army's top mental health expert, Col. Elspeth Ritchie, acknowledged that some deployment practices, such as sending service members diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome back into combat, have been driven in part by a troop shortage.

Bush will call for troops to patrol border

President Bush will call for thousands of National Guard troops to be deployed along the Mexico border in support of patrols aimed at keeping out illegal immigrants, White House officials said Sunday on the eve of an Oval Office address announcing the plan.

White House aides worked into the night Sunday to iron out details of the proposal and allay concerns among lawmakers that using troops to man the border would further burden an overextended military. ***

The officials would not say how many troops Bush wanted to use, except that it would be in the thousands but less than an estimate of as many as 10,000.

I'm not saying that the Bush administration is deliberately trying to undermine the military effectiveness of the United States by wearing out our service men and women -- I just can't imagine what he would do differently if he was.