Another missed Recruiting quota: Blamed on Mommy factor, numerous extended deployments, unfit kids?
This morning my alarm went off amidst a discussion on WBZ that the army missed its recruiting goal for the 2nd month in a row despite loosening its standards even more on obesity, education standards, and police records. believe it or not the commentator blamed it on what he called "The Mommy Factor"
Gee Mom's don't want their children joining Bush's new world order and his illegal war in Iraq to be misused and abused? Gee, why wouldn't they want their children fighting and dying in his lost cause as my own are doing? With the promise of an opportunity to get physically or mentally messed up not to speak of getting killed, what would they be against? Is it the promise of more wars to come?
I decided I wanted to discuss this so I found the story and was quite surprised at a few facts I found unbelievable. Finding out that the Army had missed its recruiting goals two months in a row makes sense when you know the truth as to what is going on and how bad this is going to get before too long but!
With that in mind and the ever increasing tours of duty, increasing tour lengths, and multiple deployments, and booming job outlook, I was pretty surprised to see that the very over used Marines and much over used and abused Army Reserves and National Guard had no problem meeting their quotas. I find that a bit surprising to say the least but that wasn't the most surprising and disturbing thing I heard.
First, Lt. Col. Dan Baggio an Army spokesman said they are not concerned yet but I say they better be. I was also surprised to see that that the numbers of soldiers signing up for additional years of service was strong then I remembered why. In April we talked about The struggle to entice Army soldiers and Marines to stay in the military, after four years of war in Iraq, has ballooned into a $1 billion campaign, with bonuses soaring nearly six fold since 2003. The size and number of bonuses have grown as officials scramble to meet the steady demand for troops on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan and reverse sporadic shortfalls in the number of National Guard and Reserve soldiers willing to sign on for multiple tours.
Besides underscoring the extraordinary steps the Pentagon must take to maintain fighting forces, the rise in costs for reenlistment incentives is putting strains on the defense budget, already strapped by the massive costs of waging war and equipping and caring for a modern military. The bonuses can range from a few thousand dollars to as much as $150,000 for very senior special forces soldiers who reenlist for six years. All told, the Army and Marines spent $1.03 billion for reenlistment payments last year, compared with $174 million in 2003, the year the war in Iraq began.
That just reminded me that I also heard this morning that Bush's wars are costing $12 Billion per month. Anyway, The recruiting downturn is particularly worrisome to Pentagon officials, especially because it has come in the summer, when recruiters normally find more fresh high school graduates eager to join. So despite increasing recruitment efforts and spending I see this as a beginning trend as kids would rather stay home and be safe. Knowing they are amidst a drive to enlarge the military by another 33,000 personnel they better be very concerned.
It was this last little statistic that amazed me. They were concerned about it from a recruitment standpoint but I am very concerned purely from the stand point of being a member of this society. Colonel Baggio pointed out that Recruiting had been hurt by the fact that 7 in 10 potential recruits in their late teens and early 20s do not meet Army standards, largely because they are too heavy or failed to graduate from high school.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/washington/10military.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
That blew me away! 70% of recruiting age youth are unfit for military duty? That is just stunning. That is a pretty limited pool for sure. I almost wish my own sons were in this category. Anyway, with tours increasing in quantity and length and more Bush wars to come, they better start being concerned but to me I guess that is a vote for obesity or dummying up. With Bush's warmongering and efforts to instigate and fight his way to new world order, this all adds up to a world of concern to me. What do you think?

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
www.anaveragepatriot.com