After you read the New York Times story about parental resistance to having their kids die in an utterly futile war in Iraq, check out the article in today's Wall Street Journal (accessible to non-subscribers, at least for now) about one new aspect of the military's struggle to keep up troop levels:

To keep more soldiers in the service, the Army has told battalion commanders, who typically command 800-soldier units, that they can no longer bounce soldiers from the service for poor fitness, pregnancy, alcohol and drug abuse or generally unsatisfactory performance. Typically such decisions are made at that level. Instead, the battalion commanders must send the problem soldiers' cases up to their brigade commander, who typically commands about 3,000 soldiers.

The goal is to reduce attrition by 1%.

The Army insists that this is just a change in thereviewing procedure, and standards aren't being lowered. I report, you decide.