Tangent: excellence and minima

This doesn't mean that we have to say that it's painfully easy—basic training is, by and large, completable by everyone who gets into it (and part of that is the selection criteria—very few quadripelegics enlist), but it's not easy. But it is "basic"; there are different levels of training (e.g., Ranger training) that is more difficult, and where the fact that not everyone can do it is part of its appeal. American egalitarianism makes it hard for people to admit that there are things that we shouldn't expect every 18 year old to be able to master. The new push toward not awarding high school diplomas until students get accepted to college is becoming an example of that.