Flaws In Military Recruiting Study Belie Truth

To the editors:



I read with interest Samuel Simon’s thoughtful essay on the socio-economic composition of the U.S. military (“Who Really Serves?,” column, Jan. 19), and agree with his conclusion that liberals (or conservatives who are against the war, for that matter, since there are many) need to move beyond a solely class-based analysis both in their rhetoric and politics.

Simon deserves credit for the way he deconstructs the statistics cited by the pro-war Heritage Institute, demonstrating the principle that statistics cited out of context tend to represent a selective view of data that is subject to conscious or unconscious bias. Simon correctly faults Heritage’s numbers for comparing apples and oranges—the average income of recruits’ families versus the average income of all families, instead of just families with recruiting-age children. A more thorough deconstruction is needed however, not just of the Heritage study but of whether the United States military reflects a just distribution of the shared responsibility for national defense.

For example, instead of looking at averages or medians, one could seek to establish whether there is a relatively strong or weak correlation between family income and the likeliness of a child to enlist in the military. If, as one might suspect, the likeliness of a child enlisting in the military decreases as their family’s income increases, a case can be made that something other than a sense of duty and patriotism (much more difficult to quantify in any case) figures into that child’s decision.

One could also factor in the effect (and question the morality) of recruiting campaigns and strategies that specifically target certain minority groups (following the español link on goarmy.com or airforce.com does not simply lead to a translated site, but an entire culturally-based sales pitch aimed at Latino youth.) To further elicit meaning from the data, one might also compare statistics between branches of the military—since, for instance, the Air Force offers significantly different prospects for its recruits than the Army.



GUSTAVO A. ESPADA ’96

Somerville, Mass.



January 20, 2006