While many still look to the military as a source of financial and professional development, the Iraq war has taken a toll on enrollment, particularly in black communities.

When Eugene Puryear began high school, he considered the military a good economic opportunity for young African-Americans like himself. But then the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, and by the time he reached 11th grade, Puryear was leading a school walk-out in protest to the war.

"I think most people in the black community feel this war has been so blatantly fought for corporate interests," Puryear said. "To see that happen in your lifetime kind of spurred me to see that the military is not just another option out there -- it serves a purpose for the government and the rich people in this country. It's not some benign option."

Puryear, now a student at Howard University and a national student organizer for A.N.S.W.E.R., Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, is not alone in his sentiments.

Black enrollment in the military has dropped by more than a third since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, according to data compiled by the Associated Press. The drop was even more pronounced in the Army, which has seen black enlistment drop from 23 percent of recruits before the war to 12.4 percent in 2006.

The strong opposition to the war among black communities, the availability of other job options, and the heavy toll of the war particularly on the Army, the branch traditionally favored by blacks, are all accelerating the drop, said David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a research and public policy institute that focuses on issues of concern to people of color.

Opposition to the war
Support for the war has been significantly lower in black communities than the rest of the country from the start. A Pew Research Center poll in April 2003, a month after the war began, found that 44 percent of blacks supported the war in Iraq, compared to 77 percent of whites.

Now, only 15 percent of blacks polled say that invading Iraq was the right decision, according to a June 2007 Pew survey.

African-Americans have always been suspicious of the motives and justification for the war, said Maya Rockeymoore, CEO of Global Policy Solutions and former vice president for research at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

And as the war continues, the idea that defense spending is edging out important domestic spending has also taken hold.

African-Americans "don't support spending to the extent that they see hospitals and schools-brand new facilities-being built in Iraq yet at home schools are falling apart and there are no hospitals for communities," Rockeymoore said.

Yvonne Latty, author of "In Conflict: Iraq War Veterans Speak Out on Duty, Loss, and the Fight to Stay Alive," said the response of African-Americans to the war is not surprising given the community's history in the country and its distrust of President Bush.

"We have a lot of problems in our own communities with education and economics," Latty said. "Those are some of the issues we would like to deal with before you start thinking 'Who are we going to bomb next?'"

The impact on the military
The soldiers Latty spoke with talked of feeling trapped and unclear about the mission in Iraq, she said. Most felt motivated to stay alive for family and fellow soldiers, while the sense of serving a noble cause was low.

"Every African-American I interviewed, not one of them said, 'I am proud and this is a great thing I'm doing in Iraq,'" Latty said.

She said she has been struck by the strength of the response from black communities.

"The best protesting you can do in the world is that you just don't go. Our drop in enrollment has really made it difficult and really made a statement," Latty said.

But there are still many blacks serving in the military, and some, like Lt. Alfeia Goodwin, say the military is an important place for growth and advancement.

Goodwin served in Iraq between 2003 and 2004, and is now breaking ground as the only black female chaplain candidate for the Pennsylvania National Guard. She enlisted in 2001, and said she is part of an African-American tradition of supporting the military.

"I looked at it as an American experience and an experience I thought I should have," Goodwin said. "We separate the Army from the war, it is not the same institution, but at the same time we understand as soldiers that we could receive the call to go to war."

Retired Navy diving officer Gregory Black, who runs a Web site called Black Military World, has been facilitating discussion about the topic.

"There are a lot of African-Americans that will come out and openly support the military, but when it comes to supporting the war I haven't found a single one," Black said.

Many black veterans have told him they wouldn't let their own children serve for this war.

"It's a response we've been hearing from the very beginning," Black said. "It is very discouraging. One of the things we have not really come to realize is that this is going to have a long term detrimental effect on African-American leadership in the military."

The response of young blacks
While family members, coaches and teachers discouraging young people from going into the military plays a part in the drop, Black said a lot of young African-Americans are making their own decisions and just "don't see it as a viable cause as something to fight and die for."

Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, director of African-American and Diaspora studies at Vanderbilt University, agreed and said young people are looking for different options.

"This war is essentially being waged on the working people's back," she said. "I think at one point people used to think it was a good place to go, a way to pursue an education and reap those benefits."

The young people leaving high school now have grown up watching this war and see no end in sight, Sharpley-Whiting said.

Lt. Col. Bobbie Williams, commander of the Bison Battalion at Howard University for the Army ROTC, recruits for several universities in Washington, D.C. He said the slump in black enrollment in the military is just part of the ups and downs of recruitment.

"There is a direct correlation between being an army in a protracted war and recruiting and retention," said Williams.

Politics should not be a major issue for people who have joined the military or ROTC, Williams said.

"The policy-makers make the policy, we execute because we swore to defend. We can respectfully disagree, but our job is not to question the leadership," he said.

Williams said he too is concerned about what this period will do for black leadership in the military.

"Even if you don't support the current policy or have disdain for the current administration ... at the end of that time you don't want to create such a vacuum that when the politics are no longer an issue, you are no longer present," he said.

-- By Talea Miller, Online NewsHour