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June 13, 2005
Military Recruitment on the Menu
Bob Herbert wants you to know the military is having a hard time meeting its recruitment goals:
The Army reported on Friday that it had fallen short of its recruitment goals for a fourth consecutive month. The Marines managed to meet their recruitment target for May, but that was their first successful month this year.
Scrambling to fill its ranks, the Army is signing up more high school dropouts and lower-scoring applicants.
Herbert attributes this to fear of getting blown up:
With the war in Iraq going badly and allegations of abuse by military personnel widespread, young men and women are increasingly deciding that there's no upside to a career choice in which the most important skills might be ducking bullets and dodging roadside bombs.
Oddly enough, Ben Stein agrees:
Second, why would anyone join the Army if he reads the newspapers and watches TV? The mainstream media show the military doing three things: being criminals, abusing captives, killing civilians, torturing the innocent -- that's one way. Then they show the Army being stupid, making mistakes that get people killed. That's the second way. Then they show the military getting killed.
Who would want to join a military that's criminal, stupid, and a deathtrap?
Of course, Stein's saying that ironically; his real culprit is the media. And is anybody curious what the actual figures are on military recruiting? Herbert says that the Army didn't meet its quota for the last four months; obviously they did five months ago then. What has changed since? Certainly not the situation in Iraq.
I suspect this is a cyclical problem that has little to do with the situation in Iraq. Here's a 2001 paper from the Rand Institute, talking about recruitment problems in 1994, when the US was not involved in any significant military endeavors.
Herbert, needless to say, doesn't have a solution. Indeed, given the tone of his column I'd suspect that he'd find a solution inherently evil. Stein suggests more pay (something most of us would accept).
Posted by pat at June 13, 2005 09:45 AM
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Comments
Bob Herbert takes the time to slam the Army's recruitment numbers, but doesn't offer up a solution? Mo way. Can't be. Must've read the column wrong.
What Bob is probably going to do is dedicate his next column to the ideas he has to improve those numbers. Yes, I'm sure that's what he planning to do.
Posted by: THIRDWAVEDAVE at June 13, 2005 03:01 PM