We've been through this before. I'm just pointing out to people that most of the so called think tanks in this country right now do more partisan politics than actual thinking. I could care less about the actual statistics. The only place that could produce those numbers is exactly the organization that has the most to gain by making them look favorable - the military. That's not to say they're right or wrong. It just gives me reason to take them with a grain of salt.

I saw similar charts and graphs during my time in the military and they didn't necessarily match with the demographics I or any of my friends observed on the inside.

By the way, I believe the military that there was a slight bump up in intelligence level of the troops right after 9/11. It fits basic human behavior because you had this small insurge of patriotic young men from all walks of life joining to fight back against Bin Laden. However, they were still primarily the rednecks of our society and more blue collar workers than people that had a lot to lose like the truly wealthy and educated (the Pat Tillman examples were not that common).

If you recall, there really was no rallying cry from the military to boost their numbers then anyway. They were pretty much content with the force they had so we didn't have a WWII style recruiting push and there was no message to the nation that we'd have to really give anything of ourselves to fight the terrorists. Hell, even our tax cuts were safe and more were expected.

Tom, you'll never know the culture shock you receive on your first day of boot camp. It's like being thrown into a never-ending episode of the Jerry Springer show.

Art