The Washington Post’s Ann Scott Tyson reports on the Pentagon’s announcement yesterday that the military actually exceeded its recruiting goals for 2008. The Pentagon brought in 168,900 active duty troops, 103 percent of its goal, even though the recruits are virtually guaranteed to have to fight in the Afghanistan War. Also, the Pentagon claims that the quality of recruits is higher this year — 95 percent have high school diplomas versus 83 percent for 2007 recruits.

The Pentagon itself says the recession, not the insatiable desire to kill Afghanistan insurgents, is the cause of the recruiting success. That so many young people are willing to sign up as soldiers is a sign that other unemployed and under-employed people might also want to work for their government. The Army spent more than $22,000 to recruit each troop for active duty service. Maybe other Americans could be less expensively “recruited” for public works and civil service jobs as unemployment continues to climb.

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