Is the U.S. military turning people away who want to join?

During a heated discussion at a synagogue lunch last weekend about Bush's failures as a commander-in-chief, I made the point that Bush has stubbornly refused to increase the size of the active-duty force, instead pushing the Guard and Reserve to the brink to meet wartime personnel needs. My antagonist cloaked a reasonable point in this loaded question: Is the U.S. military turning people away who want to join because the end strength is capped by law? Of course, what she was really asking is, if we increase the end strength by 40,000, as Kerry proposes, will we actually be able to fill those positions? This Defense Department release gives some good insight into the answer to that question. Each service met its active-duty recruiting goals for this fiscal year, which means means there's no shortage of active-duty recruits. In fact, the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps actually exceeded their goals. More important to answering the question is this line from the release: "The Army, concerned by fewer enlistees enrolled in its delayed-entry program for fiscal 2005, has recently fielded more recruiters and made more aggressive use of bonuses in order to attract and sign up more recruits." Just like any employer trying to fill positions, the military can recruit more or less aggressively to fill its ranks. On top of that, Congress can authorize financial and other incentives to get the force up to the strength needed to meet wartime obligations.