Military Recruiting

I heard a story on NPR this morning that deserves a comment here.

U.S. Army recruiting numbers are due out today, and advance reports show they have missed thier quotas for the the fourth month in a row. This doesn't particularly surprise me, but it is dismaying.

I'm concerned about how the military, particularly the Army, can weather the dwindling influx of new recruits. The Army already has extensive Stop Loss programs in effect - programs that prevent troops from leaving service - and the Reserves and the National Guard are already stretched as thin as the Regular Army. So what is the answer?

The word 'draft' has been talked about, even debated on prime time TV. I'm not a military expert, but I can tell you that the quality of force will decline if all the troops in the line don't want to be there. I also know there are serious questions regarding the socio-economic equality of a military draft.

What I don't understand is some of the comments on NPR from high school students. One of them, a junior, said that if a recruiter tried to talk to him, he'd laugh and tell the recruiter "his stuff was weak". What the hell? The youth of this country are our future, and I hope that the attitude displayed by this young man is not becoming the norm.