Why interventionalism has hurt recruiter efforts

[Thucydides]

BTW, doesn' the army have some kind of clause where they can keep you indefinitely in cases of emergency? I mean, if they don't institue the draft, and find themselves short handed, couldn't they conceivably keep you for many more years than you enlisted for?

Yes, when someone initially signs up for military service they sign up for a total of 8 years, 2-6 being active depending on what you want out of your contract (I signed up for 4 years), and the rest being spent in aninactive reserve. Inactive reserves can be called up to become active in emergencies, but while their inactive all they need is a way to contact you. A bigger problem though is stop loss, which is where they decide not to let you leave on the normal date you leave because of emergency situation, although I believe it's based off the same clause. This happen for certain jobs after 9/11 but has since been rescinded.

Anyway, it appears the Army is actually surpassing it's recruitment and retention goals right now. Whether it's because of the poor economy, a general feeling of patriotism, the new snappy ad campaign, or even a feeling that people are getting to do their job in some cases, for whatever reason the army has avoided so far what seems to happens after every major conflict, a slump in retention and recruitment. If it keeps up for the next 14 months I should have no problem getting out, and once I'm out It's possible but much less likely I'll get dragged back into active duty.