First FY-2007 Recruiting Statistics: What do they really mean?

Well, the active-duty Army, along with the Marine Corps, told the press October 4 that they had met their annual recruiting goals. We'll focus on the Army:

Army officials said they had exceeded by several hundred their target of recruiting 80,000 new active duty soldiers for fiscal year 2007, which ended on September 30. [ . . . ]

Some analysts have cautioned that the Army, stretched by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, risks problems by accepting more recruits who rate lower in its quality assessments. The Army has also offered substantial cash bonuses to new recruits.

But [Army Vice Chief of Staff General Richard] Cody said all recruits met minimum standards and some of the qualities of a good soldier could not be measured in tests.

"What metrics do you use to measure heart, especially at a time of war? To measure patriotism, to measure someone's willingness to run through enemy fire, to never leave a fallen comrade?" he asked.

Cody said troops should be judged on how they measured up after military training.

OYE Comment:

Well, General Cody, here's what's happened to 22,500 servicemembers in the past six years: Following combat in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, they are retroactively diagnosed with "personality disorders" and kicked out, without benefits.

In other words, despite years of successful service, the Pentagon is still trying to argue that these patriots were not even qualified to serve in the first place.

Assuming that this is true, simply subtracting 22,500 from cumulative enlistment figures means that the Pentagon has actually missed all of its recruiting goals since 9/11.

How does General Cody respond to that?