Continued recruiting problems for the Armed Forces, as black recruits drop big-time post Iraq War.

Clearly, black youths view the Iraq War differently than white, Hispanic, or Asian youths. But I don't think the divisiveness of the conflict is solely to blame for the low turnout.

I think it's the Armed Forces own recruitment techniques coming back to bite them in the ass. All throughout the '90s and into the '00s the Armed Forces marketed themselves as careers, camps, schools, clubs -- essentially everything but what they really are -- instruments of war.

"The Army said I'll get to learn how to be a mechanic, and then go to college; now they're saying I'll have to go to war!"

Now, I have nothing against the war part. I embrace it. The Armed Forces' job is to kill our enemies and destroy their capacity to wage war against us.

But I've a feeling that even if the Iraq War were more popular, today's pampered, soft (read: cowardly) youths (and I readily include myself in that category) would still not be all that likely to sign up because we've grown up in a time where the Army has been sooooo mismarketed. Yes, we would go hog wild for the war on a flag-waving level, but we'd still be shocked to learn that it involves icky, sticky, killing.

Such is the drawback of an all-volunteer military. While there are many guys who know exactly what they're getting into, the military must nevertheless, "massage" it's marketing to appeal to all those fencesitters. And now I think it's hurting them.