[Blarg]

The volunteer army, like the army before it and even more so, is comprised mostly of the poor with few options. The standards to get in are very low and always have been. The Best and the Brightest it certainly isn't, and never has been. A lot of people in the service are on welfare, and you can sometimes make more working at McDonalds. Though exceptions are always possible, there's little to attract the best the and the brighest.

All praise for the bravery and self-sacrifice of our soldiers, and I particularly admire the discipline in the services that seems to have pretty much evaporated from civilian life, but the services have never been a place to which the Best and the Brightest naturally gravitated, outside of the officers, and even there, rank until very recently has across the world been directly related to inheritance and social standing anyway.