Military recruitment struggles, brass worries

Cyrus · #1 03-07-2005, 05:02 AM

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Nearly two years into an Iraq war that has left more than 1,500 U.S. troops dead and another 11,200 wounded, recruiters are having to work hard as the Army strives to sign up 80,000 recruits this year to replace soldiers leaving the service.
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The Army in February, for the first time in nearly five years, failed to achieve its monthly recruiting goal. It is in danger of missing its annual recruiting target for the first time since 1999.
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Recruiting for the Army's reserve component -- the National Guard and Army Reserve -- is suffering even more as the Pentagon relies heavily on these part-time soldiers to maintain troop levels in Iraq. The regular Army is 6 percent behind its year-to-date recruiting target, the Reserve is 10 percent behind, and the Guard is 26 percent short.
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The Marine Corps, the other service providing ground forces in Iraq, has its own difficulties.
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In January and February, the Marines missed their goal for signing up new recruits -- the first such shortfall in nearly a decade -- but remained a bit ahead of their target for shipping recruits into basic training.
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Iraq marks the first protracted conflict for U.S. forces since the end of the draft in 1973, which ushered in the era of the all-volunteer military.
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If the military fails to attract enough recruits and America maintains a large commitment in Iraq, the nation may have to consider some form of conscription, said Cato Institute defense analyst Charles Pena. "This is getting dicey," said Pena.

[/ QUOTE ]

I presume that all this has been foreseen in the planning of the Iraq War strategy.

CNN Report

zaxx19 · #2 03-07-2005, 06:47 AM

So the fact that there are free elections in Iraq, a quasi democratic movement in S.A., a budding democratic movement in Lebanon against Syrian occupation and more headway in Israelstine then there has in 5 yrs is pretty trivial compared to this stuff right...

Man Cyrus, you are getting pretty desperate now that even some liberals are conceding Bush's plan for the mid east has borne fruits.

thatpfunk · #3 03-07-2005, 07:34 AM

zax,
this is still an important issue that needs to be addressed. ignoring it and pointing to positives does not help.

zaxx19 · #4 03-07-2005, 07:41 AM

2 yrs Mandatory public service for 18 yr olds after HS.(Id like to see HS also be condensed to 3 yrs but thats neither here nor there...

Public service could be working in day care centers...

working with the elderly......

working with an enviornmental group...

Servivng in the military.....

A bunch of European countries have it and its a good idea IMHO>

thatpfunk · #5 03-07-2005, 09:47 AM

Have you ever set foot in the US I live in?

Mandatory servic, regardless of the type, will NEVER fly with the general US public.

Personally, it would motivate me to raise my children in a different country.

Gamblor · #6 03-07-2005, 11:12 AM

Why?

I come from a country with mandatory service and I've found that it's far better for social equality than any affirmative action or any social program.

zaxx19 · #7 03-07-2005, 11:49 AM

Mandatory servic, regardless of the type, will NEVER fly with the general US public.

Personally, it would motivate me to raise my children in a different country.

Is this a joke???

Maybe I dont get how mandatory public service is that big of a deal that you would consider leaving the country?

Im actually shocked someone said this. And Im right wing for sure.

Cyrus · #8 03-07-2005, 09:39 AM

Compounding the many problems facing the Americans in Iraq is the presence of military contingents from non-English speaking countries. (No, I'm not referring to the Scots).

The need for those small contingents is clearly political. They play practically no role in the military matters, are usually deployed somewhere far away from danger and are quick to avoid controversy. In other words, pretty much useless in the military campaign against the insurgency. They are supposedly taking care of "back office", logistics stuff but this is exaggerated: The American Army will (rightly) not allow any serious logistics issue to be decided and acted upon by anybody else.

Frequent incidents of friendly fire such as this one tend to backfire (excuse the pun) both militarily and politically. Militarily, because, as stated above, the American Army has one more problem to deal with whenever making a friend-or-foe decision (e.g. is that guy in khakis carrying a gun an Iraqi insurgent chanting Allah'u Akhbar or a Costa Rican screaming pidgin English?).

And politically because incidents such as the shooting of an Italian negotiator by American troops does not exactly help the war's popularity in Italy -- or America's other allies.

BCPVP · #9 03-09-2005, 01:10 PM

Is there even the possiblity that the possible shortfall doesn't have anything to do with the Iraq war? As you said, the last shortfall was in 1999. There wasn't any major war that the U.S. was involved at the time, yet there still was a shortfall.

Dead · #10 03-09-2005, 02:05 PM

Gimme a break, bud.

You honestly think that there's another reason besides Iraq to explain why we have recruitment shortfalls?

I know why I'm not enlisting. I know why all my friends aren't. Think about risk-reward. I have to risk my life in some bullshit war, and I get paid shittily to do it.

Doesn't sound very fun.