WASHINGTON — Battered by an unusually tough recruiting season, the Army has raised the maximum age for recruits for the National Guard and the Army Reserve by five years, from the current 34 years old to 39.
<...>
Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va., think tank, says the change is "long overdue" because the military has been so thinly stretched by major deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Warfare has become more suitable for middle-age troops, he says. "Hand-to-hand combat is not a common thing today."

OK, so let me understand, war has become better suited for older folks compared to years ago, and yet no raise in the eligible age for Social Security -- despite a 9-year gain in life expectancy since the 1950's? Military "necessity" vs. political avoidance?