The talent pool of the military officers is shrinking :
The army is losing its best and brightest. West Point, the alma mater of American generals going back to Ulysses S. Grant, has seen a relentless rise in the number of officers who leave at the earliest opportunity. Whereas only about 35% of the West Point class of 2000 had quit after five years, for the class of 2001 the proportion rose to 46% and for the class of 2002 to 58%. Retention problems are particularly severe among captains and majors with 11-17 years’ experience—the potential future military leaders. The army currently has only half as many senior captains as it needs, and forecasts that it will suffer from a shortfall of 3,000 captains and majors (out of a cadre of 52,000) until at least 2013. The maximum age for recruits has been raised to 42, and fitness and educational standards have been lowered.
Last week’s Economist has a whole section on possible changes in American foreign policy after November 2008 .
Oh dear. What will the military do without a huge surplus of “perfumed princes” in the future? How can one run an empire without the necessary centurions?
If you believe the military should play any role in defending the US, then it would be nice to have a pool of talented and educated officers running things.
Starve the beast and maybe it will be forced to concentrate on actually defending our country instead of creating revenue streams for the military industrial complex in 130 countries….or maybe they will just false flag attack us.
Just give Bush, Cheney, Lieberman and the rest of them uniforms. They are already giving the orders… The “military” are their servants.
Armies are meant to defend, USA army is every where on the planet invading and intimidating,
sooner or later the whole human race see USA as criminal empire, many already do.