Michael Fumento

It's not exactly what Pogo meant when he said, "We have met the enemy and he is us." But it works out that way. The greatest threat to our national security isn't terrorist groups, rogue nations with nukes or China. It's an inability to stock our armed forces with top-quality men and women because too many applicants are uneducated and overweight.

About three-fourths of the nation's 17- to 24-year-olds can't join the military, largely due to these problems, says a report from Mission: Readiness, a Washington-based nonprofit organization. It's one reason President Obama is dithering over whether he should order an additional 40,000 troops to Afghanistan. Today we have just 1.4 million people in the active military, whereas in 1944 we had over 2 million serving in France alone, out of a U.S. population less than half its current size.