Pentagon Delays May Recruitment Numbers Till June 11th

[Nbadan]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Wednesday postponed by more than a week the release of military recruiting figures for May, as the Army and Marine Corps struggle to attract new troops amid the Iraq war.

The military services had routinely provided most recruiting statistics for a given month on the first business day of the next month.

Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the May numbers for the active-duty and reserve components of the all-volunteer military will be released on June 10.

"Military recruiting is instrumental to our readiness and merits the earliest release of data. But at the same time, this information must be reasonably scrutinized and explained to the public, which deserves the fullest insight into military performance in this important area," Krenke said.

Asked whether the move would simply delay the release of bad news, Krenke said, "That's not necessarily true," noting that "we expect the numbers to improve during the summer months."

Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=5&u=/nm/20050601/pl_nm/arms_usa_recruiting_dc)

The numbers must be pretty bad for them to delay them until news-dump Friday, June 11th.

You know, I was watching the redux version of Apocolypse Now on cable the other day and I realized that what Col. Kertz (Yes, I know he was a fictional character) was saying about the military's role in the Vietnam war was right, and it also applied to the war in Iraq. The U.S. doesn't need a million or more troops in the Middle East to occupy and control Iraq, Afghanistan and possibly Iran, all the military really needs is about 500,000 well-trained, disciplined troops that really want to be there.

Problem is, the military is already offering its recruits $30,000 or more for enlistment and resign bonuses and that's still not working, so the incentive to fight is going to have to be more than just money.

What to do, what to do...

http://web.archive.org/web/20030402135135/http://www.awolbush.com/images/werent-soldiers.jpg

[exstatic]

Small wonder.

Coming home... (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1066914,00.html?cnn=yes)

[Clandestino]

Small wonder.

Coming home... (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1066914,00.html?cnn=yes)

a few people from a town leave and it goes to shit.. sounds like a shitty town to me.

[Nbadan]

He spent two hours, he says, picking up "pieces and pieces and pieces" of bodies of U.S. soldiers. He remains agitated about the way the military treated the 56 Iraqi translators who worked closely with him on rebuilding projects near the end of his tour; they weren't allowed to use cafeteria facilities with American soldiers, he says. Four were taken and executed by insurgents, one on Bunn's last day in Iraq. "I thought I was prepared for anything," he says, "because it wasn't my first war."



Says Bunn: "There was no more hard-core Republican than me until I went to Iraq. I'm against abortion and gay rights, and don't mess with my guns, but I have grown up a lot. When you have spent a year in hell and you have seen the waste of money I have seen ..." He lets the thought hang. Bottom line: "I'm neither party now."


"What I don't understand is how we can rebuild everything we are rebuilding over there, but here in America our infrastructure is falling apart," he says. "I had to borrow $776,000 for this city for water. They are spending it just like nothing over there. That's reckless, and that's wrong. As soon as we build something, they blow it up. That's a big problem with me, big problem."

Thanks Ex, this is powerful stuff.

[Clandestino]

nothing new about the translators... it is that way in many areas... they are making bank so they could care less...