Wapo: Army is bungling recruitment

Today’s Washington Post has an article claiming that the Army is “bungling recruitment. The continuing stream of combat deaths in iraq make the armed forces a less attractive option than they once were:

Nearly every day, anywhere from one to several U.S. soldiers or Marines die in iraq, and even more are wounded. The news doesn’t always make the front pages anymore, but the casualty rate has apparently registered deeply in the consciousness of young Americans and their families. The result is a dangerous decline in new enlistments that is depleting U.S. military resources and weakening our capacity to face additional conflicts or threats from abroad.

In many ways, it’s great that the army is becoming unpopular again! Some pacifists extrapolate this to say the draft will have to be reinstated soon but I think this is unlikely, as the Army and Congress know the outcry and mass protests that would erupt. The short term effect will be sloppier procedures on the ground, as too few soldiers stretched too thin take shortcuts that inevitably result in unnecessary deaths and more atrocities in the prisons.

Is there a way the peace movement could take advantage of the growing unease and worry about life in the military to open conversations and get our message out to a wider audience?