[Sinner]

well, Mazer drifted well off my point, and Sinner got it completely backward - let's try and simplify this, shall we?

and, like so many others, your enthusiasm for the mission in Iraq exists only to the extent that people other than yourself actually carry it out.

Explain to me if you can what I got completely backward??

after 3 years in Iraq, recruitment is down 40%, soldiers are not re-enlisting, and attrition is high. the army is stretched thin and desperately needs people, period. so, isn't it time that those people who believe in this mission, those who are young and able-bodied, those who think it is a good and righteous war - isn't it time for those people to step up to the plate and enlist? and if not, why not? isn't freeing the Iraqi people worth the sacrifice? and if it's not worth it for you, why should it be worth for anyone else?

40%? Only in one month which was March, in April they were down 16%, Maybe you should ask, “Why?….Why are the recruitment numbers down? I doubt it only because of the insurgents in Iraq and if it is, God help us. Of Course some will not join for that reason but they shouldn’t be in the Military anyways. It is my understanding that it is the Army which is down on recruitment, the Air Force and Marines for example are right where they should be. I think the Media is partly to blame, they portray the US Military as the bad guys. Oh they did this and that to the Koran, they abused prisoners, etc. Rarely do you hear anything good come out of Iraq. I think the other problem is the pay. If you have a family and a mortgage payment, why would you join if it will not pay the bills and provide a good living for your family. People are still joining, so men and women are stepping up to the plate.

Yes freeing the Iraqi people is worth it, but Islam is stuck in the 13th century at best and it is going to be very tough to build a free nation in Iraq, Iraq will never be free like America in my opinion. Iraq may become as free as the Muslim culture will produce. Or, it may sink in tribal civil war. A quote – “Liberty prospers under stability and security. Liberty doesn’t create stability and security. Remember the French and Russian Revolutions, WW I and, especially, America’s Civil War. Elections everywhere won’t bring peace. Ideas will. Until Islam changes or Muslims convert, a minority of Muslims will threaten stability and security.” –

I will add this awell

Having spent 10 years in the Army (Infantry both before and after OCS), I have friends who are still serving. Based on comments I’ve heard from some of them in the last few months, you have hit the nail in the head as to one of the major factors in the recruiting shortfall.

While many of your more liberal readers have come on here and commented about nobody wanting to die for a questionable cause, etc., they are wrong. Sure there are always a few who will not join for fear of death or injury. There are a few who will not join for reasons of not wanting to get stuck on extended tours away from home and family (although this is not really much of a factor except for guard and reserve units).

Suprising as it may be to a lot of your liberal readers, there are more than enough gung-ho patriotic young people to fill the ranks of all the services (just look at the Marine Corps who exceeded their recruiting goals while seemingly bearing more than their share of casualties). The possibility of being killed or injured is not the big problem liberals consider it to be, because most young people have the “it won’t happen to me” mindset.

The “questionable cause” line of thinking does not come into play because it is not shared by the majority of the young people who would be recruiting candidates in the first place. This was so even during the Vietnam War when all the service branches including the Army and Marines still had a number of volunteers signing up, on top of what they obtained by way of the draft.

The biggest factors are the highly publicized perceived persecution of service members for honest mistakes in the heat of combat, mistakes that recruit candidates can identify with. Also, the constant negative press about what’s going on over there is starting to affect morale, and many young people are in contact with friends and relatives who are serving at this time and telling them that the news coverage has it wrong.

The typical recruit wants to be thought of as a hero not something on the order of a criminal. The hype that the media and the left have pursued over alleged torture of books (?) and our consequent kid glove (literally) handling of prisoners and their BELONGINGS certainly has had an impact.

The media and the left in this country are still stuck in the midset of Vietnam, where they pulled off what amounted an off battlefield defeat of the United States military. For some reason they seem obsessed with trying to acheive that goal again, and if they are allowed to continue with the same intensity that they are currently exhibiting, they just might accomplish that goal.

A final factor is the continued low unemployment rate we are currently experiencing. Despite what the left would like us to believe, the economy is good and that always cuts into recruitment whether in peacetime or wartime.


Comment by Montie