The military is demanding that the thousands of army and National Guard reserve troops in Iraq stay for a year.

Here's the difference in policy. Up until now, reserve troops were called up for a year but a chunk of that time was spent in the U.S. training to go overeseas, and in debriefings upon their return. So much less than a year was spent in Iraq.

Under the new policy, the reservists will have to spend a full year in Iraq or neighboring countries.

The new deployment policy, which is still being disseminated to Guard and Army Reserve units, is already prompting concerns by troops and their advocates, who said uncertainty about the length of deployments can have a highly negative impact on morale. The Army issued the new policy late Friday night, but made no formal announcement of the change.

There are 122,000 Army personnel in Iraq, including 3,000 National Guard soldiers and 5,000 reservists, Army officials said. Another 5,000 Guard soldiers and 7,000 reservists are serving in Kuwait, they said.

Sometimes, what goes around, comes around. Maybe we'll start seeing a comeback of "Hell No, We Won't Go." Maybe by the time of the national conventions for 2004, Bush will be considered as vile as Nixon. Already there are plans for massive demonstrations in New York when the Republicans convene --how great a stretch is it to think that New York next summer could turn into a scene from Chicago in 1968? One can only hope.