Volunteer US Military Meeting Enlistment Goals--Causing Critics to Contemplate Suicide

Many critics of the US military have claimed that the military is self-destructing over its mission in Iraq. What is far more likely is that it is the critics themselves who are self-destructing, because not only is the wartime military sharper and more proficient, but it is also meeting recruitment goals.

So what does this mean? It means that recruiting is strong for the branches of our military that see the most action in Iraq (Army and Marine active duty), and gets only slightly weaker for those branches where a troop is less likely to see action (Army NG and then on down through the Navy/Air Force reserves). Which means that of the people choosing to sign up for the military, most of them are signing up with an inclination toward going to Iraq.

Sort of throws a monkey wrench in that whole “Bush’s unpopular war” line when the military has such little trouble finding citizens willing to risk their lives for it, doesn’t it?

The US has a volunteer military. The closer a particular branch of the military is to combat in Iraq or Afghanistan, the easier it is for that branch to recruit members.