With the Army looking to expand its operation recruitment has become even more of a problem of late. April will mark the third straight month in which the Army has fallen short of its recruiting goals. In March the Army missed its goal by 32 percent which is worse than its 27 percent shortfall in February. Although the Army remains optimistic serious problems are emerging. The Army Reserve missed its recruiting goal for March by over 50 percent.

Speculation from recruiters indicates that the war in Iraq has made prospective soldiers wary of Army service. Interestingly, the Air Force and Navy are hitting their recruiting targets without issue. This raises strange parallels with the later Roman Empire when military manpower shortages forced the government to rely almost exclusively on ‘barbarian’ foederati rather than its previous levies of citizen-soldiers.