Two Iraq war veterans criticized the policies of President Bush as stretching the U.S. armed forces too thin and rallied around Democratic challenger John Kerry during a tour across Iowa this week.

With Tuesday’s election rapidly approaching, two Pennsylvania war veterans, Jon Soltz and Andy Boltz, are following presidential candidates across the country and stumping for the Massachusetts senator.

Soltz, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania and state coordinator for Veterans for Kerry, said the president has suffered a “credibility problem” that has endangered soldiers and overtaxed the military.

“The American public, Iowans and students here at this school understand George Bush has made this country less secure, that he has a credibility problem with American soldiers and he’s broken the military to a point that his policies could cause a draft,” he said.

Bush, he said, has caused a “backdoor draft” by overextending the military. Nine of the 10 combat divisions in the U.S. Army, he said, are committed to fighting the war in Iraq, which has caused soldiers to stay in the military well after their enlistment period is over.

“George Bush is breaking the all-volunteer army,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve put an all-volunteer army into a protracted conflict without an end date.”

Maj. Harry Meyer, adjunct assistant professor of military science and tactics, said it is harmful for the military to have a draft now, because it is a lot more sophisticated than it was in past conflicts.

“We don’t want anybody in that doesn’t want to be here, because we are just so sophisticated,” Meyer said.

Forcibly enlisting people in the military is similar to forcibly enrolling people into college, he said, which would cause more harm than good.

“If you look at it, would you want a handful of students that absolutely, positively did not want to be there and caused distractions?” he said. “It would drag you down … It’s the same way with us; we cannot afford to have them in there.”

Soldier numbers across the board, he said, have been “astronomically high,” which is another reason why a draft isn’t needed.

Soltz, however, said the reason numbers were high is because of the “back-door draft.” He said there is a provision in military contracts that requires them to be available for an extended period of time after their enlistment period is over.

Kerry has a plan to help alleviate the stress on the military today, Soltz said. He said the key is creating two more combat divisions by actively recruiting 40,000 more troops and working on building international alliances.

He said most of the costs and casualties in Iraq are American, and having more aid from other countries would help reduce that burden. Another benefit, he said, is that the rebuilding effort would give America more legitimacy.

“There’s a lot of ways allies can help us, more than just having X amount of French, British and German [troops],” he said. “But the only person who would say they are better without allies are the only people that haven’t been in war.”

So-called backseat pundits like Ann Coulter, he said, haven’t experienced combat, so they don’t know how important involving other nations can be.

“My dream is to put Ann Coulter in the back of my Humvee and see how long she lasts,” he said.

“When she likes war, she can come back and educate people at Iowa State about it.”