While the military press, and military experts, have been wringing their hands over the flight of junior officers from the military, I’m not concerned.

The US military has 1 officers for every 5 enlisted men, twice the historical rate of 1:10, so I think that there is plenty of margin there.

That being said, Salon’s report that the army is now being forced to promote unqualified soldiers to senior NCO positions to meet the challenges of the Iraq campaign is very troubling.

Senior NCOs are the heart and soul of the army, and when the NCO corps starts failing, the whole military does.