"Why Would Anyone Enlist Now?"

Last month, Army recruiters fell 42 percent short of their goal, according to the Army Recruiting Command. They had hoped to sign up 6,600 volunteers; but despite bonuses of up to $20,000 for those willing to report by May 30, they fell 2,779 recruits short.

Those numbers are ominous. If they continue in the months to come, as seems likely, they threaten not merely our ability to stick it out in Iraq, but also the Army's long-term ability to perform its duties worldwide. And the reason for that decline is obvious.

You can't argue with this. You can't blame young people for not signing up.

The sad part, besides all the dead unnecessarily, besides the fact that most Americans now don't believe it was right, and besides (yes, lots of besides) America's credibility being somewhere subterranean now... if we have legitimate reasons to go to war, who's going to fight it? The Bush twins? They can't fight their way out of a turtleneck sweater.

It also reminds me of that ad/slogan they used to run when I was a child (Vietnam era): "What if they gave a war and no one came?"