Nuff said.
Posted on 05/29/2005 9:17:05 PM PDT by Crackingham
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld likes to talk about transforming America's military. But the main transformation he may leave behind is a catastrophic falloff in recruitment for the country's vital ground fighting forces: the Army and the Marine Corps. The recruitment chain that has given the United States highly qualified, highly skilled and highly motivated ground forces for the three decades since the government abandoned the draft has started to break down.
This is astonishing, even allowing for the administration's failure to prepare Americans honestly for how long and difficult the occupation of Iraq would be. There are over 60 million American men and women between 18 and 35, the age group sought by Army recruiters. Getting the 80,000 or so new volunteers the Army needs to enlist each year ought not to be such a daunting challenge. There are obvious attractions to joining the world's most powerful, prestigious and best-equipped ground fighting forces, and in so doing qualifying for valuable benefits like college tuition aid.
But Army recruitment is now regularly falling short of the necessary targets. Recruiters are having even more trouble persuading people to sign up for Army National Guard and Reserve units. The Marine Corps has been missing its much smaller monthly quotas as well. Unless there is a sharp change later this year, both forces will soon start feeling the pinch as too few trainees are processed to meet both forces' operational needs.
Why this is happening is no mystery. Two years of hearing about too few troops on the ground, inadequate armor, extended tours of duty and accelerated rotations back into combat have taken their toll, discouraging potential enlistees and their parents. The citizen-soldiers of the Guard and Reserves have suddenly become full-time warriors.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I will only say, "consider the source of this article".
WhiteKnight
This may be one of the few times the NYT's is right about anything.
Actually it's mostly the improving economy.
What's hilarious is that most of the countries in the world with a draft are looking at abandoning it in favor of a smaller all-volunteer force, in imitiation of the United States (including Russia.)
Written by Charlie Rangel, no doubt. Of course, Rangel's angle is that he won't vote for it, he'll only enable others to do so.
Of course, it's all Rumsfields fault [sarcasm] Couldn't have anything to do with several troops being charged and tried for performing their duty, could it? Couldn't have anything to do with daily, almost hourly, negative reports about the troops and the War on Terror, could it? No, of course not, it's all Rumsfield
See, here's the problem. Republican kids enlist because they want to serve their country and it's the right thing to do. Democrat kids used to enlist to get all the freebees and never figured they'd actually have to do anything to get them, like risk their lives. Now that half the country is each, the recruitment pool has been cut in half. SOMEBODY is still enlisting, but you can bet it's not democrat kids.
"Couldn't have anything to do with several troops being charged and tried for performing their duty, could it?"
Generally, the duties of troops do not include violating the orders given them.
Sorry, this isn't one of them.
Horse Hockey, It's the Fish Wraps like the NYT's demonizing our Military with their constant drumbeat of "Anything that trashes the USA" articles. The reason why RAGS like the NYT's do this is clear....... George W. Bush is a Republican, and a threat to their Liberal agenda
This is simply part of the lefts agenda of having a draft reinsated so they can blame Bush for it. The article here neglects to mention that the recruitment for Marines is stable and that air force and navy, and I would presume Coast Guard, are up. This drop in the army recruitment is probably temporary and will sort out sooner or later. The left loves to jump in and push the draft obliquely. It's hard to deride the Military when it is all volunteer, volunteers do not make good victims, draftees do!
What's your opinion?
I have no doubt that the NY Slime is once again doing a liberal hit-piece and is once again wrong, as usual.
WhiteKnight
Retired USAF
The article doesn't advocate reinstating the draft at all, if you read it (the headline the NYT applied to it is somewhat overblown and misleading.)
NYT is never right.
and rarely correct.
I can't even read this. The whole problem could be solved by shutting down the NY Times, et al.
This article really needed a barf alert!
Nuff said.
I think you guys are kidding yourself if you think it's not the war.
I mean, even if you disregard being shot at, soldiers in Iraq have to spend 5 months of the year in 100+ degree temperatures with no air conditioning, among a population that is largely hostile.
That's a very hard sell, regardless of how the economy is.
I just looked at the title of this piece and knew that it was going to be one of those BS "The Draft is Coming" articles that the DU crowd loves so much. I wouldn't expect anything more (or less) from the NY Slimes.
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