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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (62350)	6/3/2005 3:57:47 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

lol ... stop yer snivelin' "...cry about being ban from some stupidfukking ether site, I haven't seen all this laughter and praise you keep reporting ... I have seen quite a bit of the opposite. Get a clue, bigot.

To: longnshort who wrote (62350)	6/3/2005 7:45:46 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 81568

Presumes facts not in evidence.

To: longnshort who wrote (62350)	6/3/2005 10:17:33 PM
From: sea_biscuit	Respond to of 81568

Army faces looming recruiting crisis By Philip Turner UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL Washington, DC, Jun. 2 (UPI) -- Embroiled in scandal and facing rising death tolls in Iraq, U.S. Army recruiters are facing serious challenges as they attempt to reach their goal of 80,000 new recruits by October. "What we have is a recruiting problem," said Charles Peña, director of defense policy studies at the Cato Institute. "The question is whether or not it becomes a recruiting crisis." Defense Department figures at the end of April showed that 35,926 recruits had signed up this fiscal year, which began last Oct. 1. This gives recruiters four months to sign up another 44,000 to meet their goal. Even worse is the number of reserves. Statistics show that 7,283 reserves have signed up. The goal is for 22,175 by the end of the year. Steadily rising U.S. casualties in Iraq, the recent allegations of prisoner mistreatment at Guantanamo Bay and the permanent stain of Abu Ghraib have all taken their toll on recruitment drives. And young men and women are not exactly banging down recruiting-station doors to join the army. The Financial Times reported Wednesday that since the invasion of Afghanistan was launched in the winter of 2001 U.S. armed forces have suffered more than 1,800 deaths, more than 1,600 of them in Iraq since March 2003. Another 13,000 have been wounded, including 6,600 so badly that they were unable to return to duty. Last month 77 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq -- the highest toll since 107 were killed in January. Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a military spokesman, said Iraqi insurgents carry out approximately 70 attacks per day. The chances of U.S. military personnel being killed or seriously wounded is reaching rates not seen since the Vietnam War. "The problem with Army recruitment now is that, unlike in peacetime, the Army is not an opportunity to benefit yourself in terms of advancing education or starting a career," said Peña. "Now people understand that joining the Army could mean getting shipped to Iraq and potentially getting killed." The pressure on recruiters is becoming increasingly intense, Peña said, as soldiers retire or do not re-up their service. Maj. Gen. Michael Rochelle, head of army recruitment, suspended recruiting nationwide for a day last month to emphasize ethical conduct when signing up new recruits. At least 90 investigations are pending about recruiters who have allegedly used unethical and sometimes threatening measures to fulfill quotas of at least two new recruits each month. Those measures allegedly include helping recruits pass drug tests and forge fake high school diplomas. "The army is in a huge bind," said Peña. "Any truth in those allegations shows just how desperate they are. And In Iraq, it's a situation there that at best is treading water." In a news conference at the Pentagon May 21 Rochelle said reaching recruiting goals even under the best of circumstances is challenging. "Today's conditions represent the most challenging conditions we have seen in recruiting in my 33 years in this uniform," he said. A significant part of the challenge, Peña said, is that the United States is not technically a nation at war. "This is not like World War II in that the country is still split on this war -- there just aren't all those volunteers." Whether the Army can fulfill its recruiting goals will depend on the efforts of its 7,500 recruiters nationwide. "The reality is that it is going to be hard to get out of Iraq," said Peña. "We're on the verge of a recruiting crisis -- we'll just have to see how it all unfolds this summer." The Bush administration appears determined to try and keep the hot-button issue of reinstating some form of national selective service off the political table at least until after the 2006 midterm elections. But military experts warn that the drain on the Army's limited manpower pool caused by the unanticipated complications of Iraq are so great and so open-ended in their nature that the administration may be forced to confront the issue at some point before the November 2008 presidential election.