Category IV recruits…

…sounds so much nicer than 'cannon fodder.' From a NYT op-ed by Kelly Greenhill...

DESPITE claims to the contrary by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Army is facing a manpower crisis. The evidence can be found in two separate reports released last month — one commissioned by the Pentagon, the other by Congressional Democrats — and in this simple fact: last year the Army accepted its least qualified pool in a decade.

The Army inducted both more recruits without high school diplomas and more youths scoring in the lowest category of the Army's aptitude test, so-called Category IV recruits.

I hate what they've done to my Army.


Hat tip to Jonathan Zasloff at the Reality Based Community.