Army recruits shortfall blamed on Iraq war critics

[Prudence]

I think it might have something to do with people actually dying.

Every recruit and former recruit I've ever met has a bait-and-switch story to go along with their recruitment. And this includes my husband and in-laws, who are about as rah-rah military as it gets for people now out of uniform.

And in peace-time, it's an "oh-well" situation. So they show you brochures of happy people in a resort-like setting, assure you that they can get you the most sought-after assignments, promise you money for whatever it is you want money for, whatever it takes. And the recruit figures they're young, it's only a couple of years, and why not? They're not ready for college, or they can't afford college, or they don't know what they want to be, or they have a uniform fetish. Regardless, they figure they can make it through boot camp and n years of marching in formation and eating mess hall food in exchange for the promises.

And when they don't get what they're promised (or in most cases, they DIDN'T READ THE DAMN CONTRACT BEFORE SIGNING IT) they usually don't complain because hey, it's free room and board (unless you're National Guard, in which case get ready to bend over).

But now, the game's different. Now people ACTUALLY TRY TO BLOW YOU UP. And it's on the news EVERY DAY! And it doesn't matter what your job classification is, you're a target!

Now, you'll still get people signing up who want to be in the military, because that's the career they are deliberately choosing. What you WON'T get is the recruits who say "gee I don't what I want to do. I guess I'll join the military for a few years and see how that goes." The risk of death or injury is now too high to balance a wishy-washy intent.