CNN reported Friday that young officers are leaving the military in numbers not seen since Vietnam. The loss is creating a "brain drain." The CNN video can be found at Rawstory. As Blue Girl will attest that is old news. As we previously reported young captains don't want to spend 3 out of their first 6 years in the service schlepping around Baghdad.
This morning The New York Times says the Bush Administration is exploring ways to reduce Iraq troop levels from 146,000 to about 100,000 by 2008. According to the Times article
Officials say proponents of reducing the troops and scaling back their mission next year appear to include Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. They have been joined by generals at the Pentagon and elsewhere who have long been skeptical that the Iraqi government would use the opportunity created by the troop increase to reach genuine political accommodations.Lets think about these two stories. The military is losing its junior officer corp at an alarming rate, and the Pentagon is pushing to reduce troop levels in Iraq. Hummm, I wonder if the stories are related? The Pentagon might just accomplish what the Congress wouldn't.
