Army Faces Looming Recruiting Crisis

Whether the Army can fulfill its recruiting goals will depend on the efforts of its 7,500 recruiters nationwide. “The reality is that it is going to be hard to get out of Iraq,” said Pena. “We’re on the verge of a recruiting crisis — we’ll just have to see how it all unfolds this summer.”

The Bush administration appears determined to try and keep the hot-button issue of reinstating some form of national selective service off the political table at least until after the 2006 midterm elections.

But military experts warn that the drain on the Army’s limited manpower pool caused by the unanticipated complications of Iraq are so great and so open-ended in their nature that the administration may be forced to confront the issue at some point before the November 2008 presidential election.
Military.com