US will 'have to face' military draft dilemma: senator
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States will "have to face" a painful dilemma on restoring the military draft as rising casualties result in persistent shortfalls in US army recruitment, a top US senator warned.
Joseph Biden, the top Democrat of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made the prediction after new data released by the Pentagon showed the US Army failing to meet its recruitment targets for four straight months.
"We're going to have to face that question," Biden said on NBC's "Meet the Press" television show when asked if it was realistic to expect restoration of the draft.
"The truth of the matter is, it is going to become a subject, if, in fact, there's a 40 percent shortfall in recruitment. It's just a reality," he said.
The comment came after the Department of Defense announced Friday the army had missed its recruiting goal for May by 1,661 recruits, or 75 percent. Similar losses have been reported by army officials every month since February.
But experts said even that figure was misleading because the army has quietly lowered its May recruitment target from 8,050 to 6,700 people.
That has prompted charges that the real shortfall was closer to 40 percent, which in turn has led to questions about the future viability of the army as a force, if it continues to be plagued by lack of new recruits.
Since October, the army has recruited more than 8,000 fewer people that it had hoped to, which amounts to a loss of about a modern brigade.
The army, navy and Marine Corps reserves also fell short of their monthly goals by 18 percent, six percent and 12 percent respectively, according to the figures.
Recruitment at the Army National Guard was down 29 percent while the Air National Guard fell short 22 percent.
news.yahoo.com |
