By 2000, 42 percent of Army enlisted members were minorities. Black Americans in particular had made the volunteer army a success. Although African-Americans constitute 13 percent of the nation's overall population, in 2000 they comprised fully a quarter of the Army's soldiers and a larger percentage still of the noncommissioned officer corps. Today, under the stress of a protracted war, this bargain plain folk serve while the well-heeled cheer from a safe distance has begun to unravel. The all-volunteer force is beginning to come apart not for a lack of resources but because it is and was from the outset inconsistent with democratic principles and morally untenable. According to President Bush, winning the global war on terror means that the United States must exert itself to spread the blessings of liberty around the world. If so, then those who enjoy a disproportionate share of freedom's blessings here at home ought to share in the sacrifices that such an enterprise necessarily entails. Military service today is no longer a job opportunity to be coveted. Increasingly, it is becoming a trial to be endured. [more]
- Whereas in
fiscal year 2000, 23.5 percent of Army first-term enlistees were black,
by 2004 that figure had dropped to 15.6 percent. Over the first four
months of the current fiscal year, it stands at 13.9 percent.
- Nor is
the problem confined to the enlisted ranks. Since 2001, black
enrollment in ROTC has dropped by 36 percent. Like Cheney in the 1960s,
young African-Americans today are finding that they too have other
priorities. Ratcheting up its advertising budget, offering more
lucrative bonuses, flooding strip malls with additional recruiters, and
lowering enlistment standards, the Pentagon is furiously trying to
manage this problem. That effort is unlikely to succeed.
- Mr. Recruiter, Why Would Blacks Fight For a Country that Won't Fight for Them? [more]