Military Recruitment

The National Center for Policy Analysis spotlights an article in Investors Business Daily about the makeup of our military personnel.

You may recall Rep. Charlie Rangle (D-NY) has for at least a couple of years been calling for a return to the draft. As someone who served 10 years in the military, I can tell you that Rangle's class-envy rhetoric about the po' folk who have nowhere to go but serve as cannon fodder in our military is a bunch of bunk.

As NCPA and the article point out,

In both cases, he was wrong about the soldiers who comprise our all-volunteer armed forces:

- Roughly 95 percent of the recruits are high school graduates; the national average is about 80 percent.

- In the Air Force, nearly 50 percent have advanced professional degrees.

- The poorest Americans made up less than 15 percent of the recruits in 2003 while recruits from households earning between $42,000 and $200,000 a year constituted nearly 45 percent.

The fact is, the military has a distinct middle-America look, says IBD:

- The bulk of recruits come from households with annual income of $25,000 to $45,000.

- The share from households where the yearly income is $75,000 or $80,000 is strikingly similar to that from households where the income is $10,000 a year.

The article also points out that, contrary to Leftist rhetoric, there is not a disproportionate number of minorities serving in the military.

If we need to increase the number of our military personnel, we can always step up recruitment efforts and increase the pay/benefits package for military personnel. We haven't even tried these things, so calling for the draft is unnecessary.

Besides, having a volunteer force means you have a military made up of people who asked to be there. It means, with the exception of a few opportunists just looking for a free college education, that your military is made up of men and women who love their country fiercely and are willing to fight for her.

The whole call for a draft is disingenuous coming from the Left, since they were falling all over themselves to slash the military when the Cold War ended. Remember the "peace dividend?"

When are they going to learn that there are always going to be evil people out there who want America in their cross hairs?