OK but this war is not even at 4 months. How long did it take before national guard/reserve were sent to Iraq and before talk of US Army struggling to reach its recruitment goals? Surely it was much later?
> Already participating in combat operations in Afghanistan, the National Guard lived up to its motto of "Always Ready, Always There," and answered the call in January 2003 to send troops to Iraq for the beginning stages of what would later be known as Operation Iraqi Freedom.
https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article/576180/the-nation...