Damage:

Since the start of the Iraq war almost five years ago, the percentage of recruits who have graduated from high school has dropped annually. It is now down to 71 percent, well below the 90 percent level the military would like to maintain.

The US Army has long used a high school degree as a marker because recruits who have one are much more likely to complete their term of service successfully. Half of all soldiers without such degrees do not complete their term of enlistment, which forces the service to do more recruiting and training. It is an exaggeration to say the Iraq war is killing the volunteer army. But the war is turning it into a different force from the one that was built up painstakingly after the draft ended in the early 1970s.

Last week’s report by the non-profit National Priorities Project found a 25 percent drop since 2004 in the proportion of “high quality” recruits, which the army defines as those who have at least a high school diploma and score in the top half of the military’s qualification test. In October 12.3 percent of the army’s recruits needed waivers because they have records, including felony convictions. As the Bush administration debates whether to reduce or maintain American troop levels in Iraq, it should pay close heed to the declining quality of army recruits. — International Herald Tribune