The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Dirty Little Secrets
Politics and Military Recruiting
by James Dunnigan
November 18, 2005
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
Military recruiting in the United States is increasingly getting mixed up
with partisan politics. Some Democratic Party politicians and activists are
calling for restrictions on recruiters, and many are urging their constituents
not to enlist. This is part of the Democratic opposition to the foreign policy
of a Republican president. Overall, this is not having much effect, except on
young African-Americans. Currently, the military is 17 percent black (versus 11
percent of the civilian work force), 67 percent white (versus 71 percent) and
nine percent Hispanic (versus eleven percent). The number of blacks enlisting
has been falling for the last three years, causing a shortage of about five
thousand recruits for the army this year. The other services are getting all
the people they need. Democrat politicians insist that blacks and Hispanics
suffer a disproportionate number of casualties. But they don’t, as the troops
killed in Iraq and Afghanistan so far have been is 71 percent white, 9 percent
black and 10 percent Hispanic. This is because whites are more likely to sign
up for combat jobs. Blacks have traditionally gone for technical and support
jobs, being more career minded about their military service. But the political
posturing is having an impact, with many potential black recruits believing
black politicians and community leaders, who repeat the myth that blacks are
being recruited as “cannon fodder.”
The military is adjusting to this by moving some of their recruiting effort
away from blacks, and towards new immigrants, who have been enlisting in higher
numbers than in the past. Advertising is also making whites and Hispanics more
aware of the technical and support jobs that blacks were more eager to take in
the past. These jobs are also appealing to new immigrants, who see the military
as a way to gain technical training faster, improve their English, get money
for college and gain their citizenship sooner.
Democrat politicians are trying to connect recruiting with some kind of class
warfare, and demand vague reforms. As a practical matter, the military has been
a competitive employer for the last three decades. The military has demanded
above average standards (in terms of education and character) from its
recruits, as a result of past experience with low quality recruits. To be
effective, the military must have disciplined, dedicated recruits. Political
opportunists seek to impose other standards for recruiting, ones that will
serve partisan political goals, not national defense.
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