No Army for Young Men

Soldiers these days need less muscle and more maturity, says Rosa Brooks, so why do we still focus on recruiting 18-year-old males? The recruiters have got it all wrong:

The skills the military is most likely to need in the future are precisely the skills that American young people in general -- and young males in particular -- are most likely to lack. The U.S. military will need people with technical experience and scientific know-how. It will also need people with foreign language and regional expertise and an anthropological cast of mind -- people who can operate comfortably and effectively surrounded by foreigners. And in the 24-7 media environment -- the era of the strategic corporal -- the military will, above all, need people with maturity and good judgment.