And conscription of the male population remains has adverse effects on recruiting women. Sweden used to have 4 % female officers while the US has ten times that. From the outside the US forces seems very diverse. Recruiting the poor in the US helps I guess.

There’re more ways of assuring armed forces remain anchored to a democratic state. The most important is to keep the officers in line.

Recruiting from conscripts is one way. Another is the Irish way. They — at least used to — coup safe their officers through a obligatory year at a university level

Maaaiiland