Military Recruits Do Not Share Pessimism

It appears that neither the U.S. military forces, nor their recruiting pool, share the pessimism of the Iraq Study Group regarding our ability to achieve our objectives in Iraq. At a time when criticism of the Bush Aministration's Iraq policy has peaked, during the month when the Democrats recaptured Congress, the Defense Department announced today that the Navy and Air Force met their recruiting goals in November, while the Army and Marine Corps, which bear the brunt of the ground fighting, actually exceeded their recruiting goals. I understand that a war correspondent in Iraq is currently writing a book describing our military forces there and in Afghanistan as the "next greatest generation." He may well be right.