As a follow up to my prior posting about the AP hit piece about the military’s high school recruiting rates, I did a little research in to the facts and numbers used in the AP article including determining the creditability of the source of the article.  The AP bases their article around the research done by an organization called the National Priorities Project.  On the NPP webpage this is their claim of what they are about:

National Priorities Project (NPP) is a 501(c)(3) research organization that analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent. Located in Northampton, MA, since 1983, NPP focuses on the impact of federal spending and other policies at the national, state, congressional district and local levels.

So the next question that needs to be asked is who funds this group.  You can view who funds the NPP here, but it is basically funded by a consortium of leftist groups with links to none other than George Soros.  Mr. Soros is on quite the roll lately with his leftist organizations launching now multiple hit pieces against the US military with the aid of the complicit media.  I debunked this "dumber" Army stereotype last year and this year the usual suspects are trying to once again create a false perception of the military that is not true.

Since now we know the NPP is a Soros front group that immediately made me question their findings.  Thus I decided to check around the Pentagon site and find the recruiting numbers straight from the source.  Wouldn’t you know it, the NPP’s claim of only 71% of Army recruits having high school diplomas is incorrect.  The actual number is 79% of recruits had a high school diploma.  This is an important distinction because 79% puts the Army above the national average of high school graduates.  The NPP is trying to create the perception the Army is getting "dumber" when in fact even with a slip in the total number of high school graduates the Army is still "smarter" than the American public in general.  Something else the NPP isn’t telling people is that all the other services recruited over 90% of new enlistees with high school diplomas which compensated for the Army thus causing the Pentagon to overall meet their 90% goal. 

Also I want to reiterate that I believe the people should be given the maximum opportunity to serve their country and I don’t appreciate the elitist mind set that “dumb” people with a GED shouldn’t be allowed to join the military. This elitist mind set is very similar to what elitists decades ago used to say about black recruits and once they received increased opportunities in the military they excelled. The ranks in the military are filled with many great black soldiers and leaders. People should be given every opportunity to serve their country even if they are “dumb”, fat, female, a “gangbanger”, a “hick”, black, or have polka dots. If once they are in and cannot meet the standards than there are ways to chapter them from the ranks.  In my career I have seen so many soldiers that have been initially classified as “dumb” go on and excel and provide a great service to their country. However, we don’t know if these people can excel if we don’t give them an opportunity which elitists from the Soros front groups would rather deny to these people for solely political reasons.

Something else the NPP isn’t disclosing is that the military had an above average result in recruiting soldiers with aptitude scores between Mental Categories I - IIIA which is much higher than the military had in the 80’s when there was no war going on.  The Army is far from getting "dumber" and I believe the US military has never had a more educated force than what we have right now. 

With that all said, I do believe that recruiting is more difficult, but it is not because of the war.  The main reason is the need to recruit more soldiers because of the expansion of the military.  Once the expansion is complete, recruiting becomes easier because you do not have to recruit so many people.  The military also has to compete with a surging economy and low unemployment rates.  The economy may be slowing down now and if it does this may make recruiting easier.  Only time will tell but there a variety of reasons why recruiting is difficult and the war is not the main one that the Soros funded front groups want people to believe it is.   

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