Army recruits shortfall blamed on Iraq war critics

[scaeagles]

I don't necessarily blame the media. Like is true with all news, bad news is the best to report.

Whether the war was justified or not is a matter of opinion. The majority of the press does have the opinion that it was not. I happen to think it was, for reasons previously (and over and over) stated, most recently in the Dick Durbin thread.

Which brings me to....Dick Durbin. Frankly, most youth don't know their history. They don't know specifically what the Nazi death camps and Pol Pot and the gulags of the Soviet Union were really like. They just know that they were bad. Really bad. So, when they hear things like Durbin comparing our military and procedures therein to those really bad guys, who wants to participate with that? That's just one example - and I fully admit it was so recent it could not have had an effect on the poor recruiting of the recent past.

Also, since the end of Vietnam and the end of the end of the draft, we have had relative peace. I know many people I went to highschool with that enlisted in the military because they wanted the educational incentives involved. I really doubt if many would have enlisted should the cold war have been a hot one. After the fervor surrounding 9/11 died down, so did enlistment.

It is irresponsible to blame the media. However, it is not irresponsible to blame those who have been calling this a Vietnam. Again, most youths are completely clueless as to what Vietnam was - only that it was really bad and many bad things happened there. When Kennedy and Shumer and Reid and whomever keep calling this a Vietnam, of course that will hurt recruitment.

Edited to add: MBC makes a great point about lengthening of tours, and I agree with it completely.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Edited to add: MBC makes a great point about lengthening of tours, and I agree with it completely.

To expand on that a little...

You have a Stop Loss which means you can't get out if you have a job that they need people in. Then you have the people who are being told re-up for another x years for little to no bonus or we'll extend you for x years period.

And the newest phenomen is people coming back from deployment, thinking their next tour isn't for a year due to the deployment schedule and a month later they find out they have to go back in 2 months.

People aren't just being extended in Iraq and Afghanastan (Yup, still lots of troops there though you only hear about them when they die or find someone... Where's OBL??). They are being extended on WestPacs, Oki tours (for the MC) and other non combat deployments.

[SacTown Chronic]

I'm gonna have to agree with the hawk from Oklahoma. Would it kill the media to put a positive spin on things?


I mean, it wouldn't be hard to turn this depressing story:

Suicide bomber in crowded Baghdad market kills 42.


Into this uplifing tale of hope for the future:

Good news on the desperate drinking water situation in Baghdad! 42 water consuming Iraqis killed by suicide bomber.



C'mon, you dope smoking communist media types, stop hating freedom and get your act together.