THE ARMY is running into recruiting issues, something I’ve worried about for a while. StrategyPage observes:

The army expects to reverse the recruiting shortfall by lowering standards (which will increase training costs), add more recruiters and spend more money on advertising. The army is also offering larger bonuses (up to $90,000, in one lump sum) to get existing troops to re-enlist. Past experience indicates that these methods will probably work, but will increase personnel costs as much as ten percent.

This is why proposals to enlarge the Army, discussed during the campaign last year, were probably impractical.