Iraq surge

The surge in Iraq is working. This is no suprise to any one who has observed the war without a bias. However after the surge is complete there will be a problem with battalions available for deployments.
Basically since there are more troops on deployment "now" as part of the surge that means their are less troops to available to replace them when their deployments are over. What it comes down to is the law of averages. You're using more assets "now" and sometime in the near future, because you've used an extra number of troops, you will have to make due will less later on or not give them as much time off as you had done before.
Certainly, if this happens it will create a political uproar. The Democrats will claim that the war cannot be fought under these conditions... However it is the Democrats who already put more stress on the troops by withholding the last budget bill, which forced the DOD to extend tours to 15 months in order to save money on the preparations and logistics bills that come along with deploying troops.