Noonan has an excellent post below on the retention crisis in the Army ( I think "crisis" might overstate it a bit, but no doubt a serious and pressing problem), which was most recently highlighted by the announcement that COIN expert Lt. Col. John Nagl would be leaving the service to work at a left of center think tank in Washington. But today I came across an interesting piece on China's ballistic missile force and was amused by this tidbit about China's own retention crisis, which has been one notable downside of the rapid economic growth in that country:
With the development of the market economy the SAF units, which were mostly stationed in remote mountainous regions in the past, have become the most unstable combat forces in the PLA. There are frequent instances of servicemen seeking early release from the military to transfer to local civilian positions, or even deserting their posts. Because of this, the newly established SAF missile brigades are located in small cities where well-equipped military camps and barracks have been constructed.
Of course, the Chinese have a fairly large labor pool to draw on, and while we are trying to increase end strength, they are trying to cut the fat off their own armed forces. But it's clear that retaining highly-skilled people is a struggle for our competitors as well, perhaps even more so. And for our enemies, like al Qaeda--well, not that you'd ever hear about it, but I'm sure a lot of their best people (the ones that haven't been eliminated by our best people) have decided to take their talents elsewhere over the last few years.