June 8, 2005, An Army of One
Once again, it's looking like the United States Army's unfortunate choice of advertising slogans is a reflection of it's intended force levels, as it looks like May's Army recruiting goals were off by either 25% if you believe the "revised" numbers, or over 37% if you believe the actual numbers (the Grey Lady's piece notes that there will be skepticism caused by the self-serving revision... to coin a phrase... ya' think?)
This is all part of a growing trend: our military's largest (and coolest) branches, the Navy and Air Force, which, by and large, do not have heavy contingents on the ground in Iraq, are generally meeting their recruiting goals, whereas the less cool Army and the Marine Corps, which do have heavy contingents on the ground in Iraq, are not. I realize that a lawyer arguing the scientific connection of those facts might contend there was no "proven" relationship (in a "beyond a reasonable doubt" sense to some people), but apparently, our nation's youth seems to think there is, nonetheless, and is voting with its boots.
I tend to go back to what I view as that squandered opportunity we had for those few months after 9-11-01, when, instead of a call for national service that might have enabled the nation to meet national service needs of any kind imaginable, we were instead told to shop. This, in turn, was followed by the lengthy machinations leading up to the Iraq War, followed by the rather unfortunate history of the amazingly rapid victory over the amazingly rapidly collapsed Iraqi military under Saddam Hussein, followed by the easily predictable insurgency with its bloody results.
The Army faces a difficult conundrum; in the short term, it appears that various retention gimmicks have, perhaps, stanched the outward flow of exiting soldiers. On the other hand, army work is, ultimately, a young person's game, and a nation of 280 million people having trouble meeting manpower needs in the range of 8,000 per month for its army at a time when it is involved in a large-scale ground combat purportedly for its own defense is, to coin a phrase, not good news.
Comments
If the Army can't attract enough 18-year olds it makes you wonder about the National Guard. How are they doing in attracting new "weekend soldiers"?
Something that is striking in reading USA Today's daily list of those killed in Iraq is that so many of them are well into their 30's. This ain't a bunch of 19-year olds like Vietnam.
Posted by Pug at June 8, 2005 12:16 PM
By the way, to be fair, the Democrats are the party of the 2-left foot doofuses who couldn't get laid in a whorehouse with a fistful of $50's.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Posted by Howard Dean at June 8, 2005 5:54 PM
It's more than obvious that young people know the war on terrorism in Iraq is a sham and are not willing to die for it.
Who would want to die because a president had a personal vendetta against another foreign leader who tried to kill his father. 3 thousand American deaths and 200 billion dollars later, we are just happy campers willing to pour in another 3 thousand lives, another ten years and 1 trillion dollars to force democracy in this region. Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just turn the whole region into a sheet of glass?
Posted by Donald R at June 8, 2005 10:55 PM
There's probably a bit of nimbyism going on: sure, we're all for the War on Terror, and we're all for Liberating Iraq and Spreading Democracy, but we're not sending OUR sons and daughters to do it.
In addition, I saw a report somewhere that, for the first time, more than 50% of Americans believe that they are losing the war in Iraq.
Of course, the rabid right are blaming it on the media, just like they did in Vietnam and Somalia.
Posted by Dean at June 11, 2005 10:51 AM
You know what's funny? I use the same tricks that J. Edgar used to keep the job until his death, you know, gathering dirty info on the Presidency and others in power, so no one would dare ask him to step down, despite the dresses and all. I gathered info on Nixon with the same team J. Edgar put together, except when I don't get the top job, I turn it loose on Nixon. AND I'M A HERO!!! That's funny.
Posted by W. Mark Felt at June 11, 2005 10:53 AM