A Stitch in Haste

The United States Army fell 6,600 people short of its 80,000 recruiting goal for the twelve months ended September 30, 2005. The other branches met their goals, although the Marines struggled to do so.

As a result, the military not only continues to raise financial incentives to attract new recruits, but may also be forced to consider "radical" new approaches to finding willing soldiers:

Michael O'Hanlon, defense specialist at the Brookings Institution, said Monday that if conditions get worse the future of the all-volunteer force could be in jeopardy.

"Unless the situation in Iraq improves, or unless we drastically enlarge the pool of possible recruits in some way -- for example, lowering academic standards for them, or even considering an extreme option like allowing foreigners to gain U.S. citizenship by serving -- one would have to expect continued tough slogging for the Army," O'Hanlon said.

So it's better to have semi-literate flunkies, or foreign mercenaries who want to bypass the traditional immigration provess, joining the military than to allow openly gay citizen-patriots the opportunity to serve their country?

How much more blatant does the stupidity of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" have to become before the military concedes defeat and allows gays to serve, even if only in non-combat roles at first (so the "unit cohesion" gobbledygook becomes moot)?

If one good thing comes from the Iraq War, it will be the end of DADT. A bittersweet result, perhaps, but every gain counts.

POST SCRIPT: I never miss an opportunity to remind readers that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was brought to you, as was federal DOMA, by the Democratic pervert-president, Bill Clinton.