With America's armed forces spread across the world and American troops in battle in both Afghanistan and Iraq, the AP's military writer Robert Burns reports that the deficit in new recruits this year was the largest in more than 25 years.

The Army is closing the books on one of the leanest recruiting years since it became an all-volunteer service three decades ago, missing its enlistment target by the largest margin since 1979 and raising questions about its plans for growth.

Many in Congress believe the Army needs to get bigger — perhaps by 50,000 soldiers over its current 1 million — in order to meet its many overseas commitments, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army already is on a path to add 30,000 soldiers, but even that will be hard to achieve if recruiters cannot persuade more to join the service.

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The Army has not published official figures yet, but it apparently finished the 12-month counting period that ends Friday with about 73,000 recruits. Its goal was 80,000. A gap of 7,000 enlistees would be the largest — in absolute number as well as in percentage terms — since 1979, according to Army records.

The Army National Guard and the Army Reserve, which are smaller than the regular Army, had even worse results.

There are many who believe that the only path to success in Iraq today would be to place more American troops on the ground. With this in mind, it is disconcerting to hear that the Army is finding it so difficult to sign up new recruits.