Another October surprise

Here's something relevant to the kerfuffle over John Kerry's comment the other day about education and Iraq:

The Heritage Foundation released its study of recent American military recruits, and finds that they are, for the most part, well-educated and generally middle-classed. Here's the press release: Post-9/11 Military Recruits Wealthier, Better Educated, Study Shows. For more detail: Who are the Recruits?

This is an update of a previous report issued last year, just in time to help argue against Kerry's point. Kerry claims he was not referring to recruits in his comparision, but to Bush. I can't help thinking, though, that the mindset about the wartime military is affected, as it is in many of our generation, by the fact that during the Vietnam war those who could not avoid the draft tended to be those who didn't have the advantages of higher education or higher economic class.

This is a different military and a different war, but it still seems that recruitment may be influenced by the opportunities that military experience can provide for a kid who has none. That theory was bolstered by another report last year, showing that, as the Washington Post reported,

...the military is leaning heavily for recruits on economically depressed, rural areas where youths' need for jobs may outweigh the risks of going to war.