Army misses recruiting goal.
By on Jun 11th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Army misses recruiting goal.
“The U.S. Army missed its recruiting goal in May for the first time this year but said on Monday the shortfall was not the start of a downward trend.”
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What? running out of gangbangers, criminals, mental cases, and fast tracked citizens etc.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:24 pmWhy am I not surprised???
June 11th, 2007 at 4:25 pmConsidering that the Army rarely missed any recruitment goals until the war started, what do they consider a ‘downward trend?’
June 11th, 2007 at 4:25 pmDo tell.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:26 pmI went to a Southern Baptists (Private) High School graduation last month – out of class of 100 or so graduates, ZIPPO joining the Army or Marines. I thought that was pretty telling.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:27 pmDoes anybody feel a draft in here?
June 11th, 2007 at 4:28 pmThey already have lowered every standard we had in place prior to the “WAR” and STILL can’t fulfill their goals??????
HMMMMMMMM??????
June 11th, 2007 at 4:29 pmI went to a Southern Baptists (Private) High School graduation last month – out of class of 100 or so graduates, ZIPPO joining the Army or Marines. I thought that was pretty telling.
Comment by Robert
Why do Baptists hate America?
June 11th, 2007 at 4:29 pmthe shortfall was not the start of a downward trend
Nope . . . it’s just the continuation of a downward trend.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:30 pmThere’s some military intelligence. One month of data and they can tell us it’s not a downward trend.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:33 pmLooks as if the various coalitions of the willing are no longer willing.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:34 pm#1 – I wish I could disagree w/ you on that one, I really do…..but alas, I cannot. It’s true that the Army’s (at least) standards for recruitment has taken a dramatic nose-dive, they can’t really lower them any further w/o looking under bridges ( a hit on trolls, not the homeless). They’ve even begun offering unprecedented incentives (reaad $$$) for recruits to stay in and re-enlist….those are likely to be more effective.
#5 – Robert – I actually CAN disagree w/ you on that one. 100 graduates and zero recruits isn’t all that surprising. Sounds like a very small school, and it could quite possibly have been a case of a recruiter devoting his energies elsewhere, perhaps due to some larger schools in the area??…..Just giving the benefit of the doubt. I wouldn’t necessarily read anything into it.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:35 pmForget opinion polls and approval ratings or the Republicans losing control of congress…. You certainly can’t get a better indication that people don’t like the war than when you can’t get anyone to volunteer to fight it.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:40 pm#13 Remember the old saying during Vietnam “What if they gave a war and nobody came?”
June 11th, 2007 at 4:41 pm# 12 I wouldn’t necessarily read anything into it.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:46 pmComment by SGT Higgins
I think you’re right sarge. I think our focus is better spent on the longterm effects of the treatment of our forces today.
It’s OK. We will be saved by the our alliance with world superpower Albania!
-GSD
June 11th, 2007 at 4:49 pmHowever, we seem to have created a new threat to American interests by pissing off Serbia………..
June 11th, 2007 at 4:52 pmThe recruiters have sussed their being killed and used –
meanwhile
11,000 British Troops Have Gone AWOL Since Iraq War Began
June 11th, 2007 at 4:54 pmI watched Flashback the other night – - – and its as if the movie is timeless — still using the same patriotic bullshit from that movie with Iraq nowadays -
June 11th, 2007 at 4:56 pmSGT Higgins,
Yes, my point was anecdotal. But if I recall, the Army and Marines need to get about 2% of the High School graduating classes to maintain manning levels and when a High School full of presumably Bush supporting, conservative raised Christian kids seem to be not heeding the call that seems telling to me.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:57 pmIt’s not a downward trend, people just aren’t signing up.
Yeah, that’s it…..
June 11th, 2007 at 4:58 pmGuess the age limit will have to be extended to maybe 46 or 50. WTF – why not make it 80. We could move some retirees off of Social Security and give them a real job fighting in war based on lies. (sarc)
Signed by: the military returning from Iraq in flagged draped coffins.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:02 pmIt’s obviously the start of an upward trend!!! :)
June 11th, 2007 at 5:02 pmYou can give recruitment numbers, but desertion and awol rates are high. Over eight thousand American soldiers are absent without leave, most living underground in the United States. Many now refer to AWOL as “Against War of Lies” instead of Absent Without Leave.
This is the true state of the military. Resistance to the war on Iraq within the US military community is growing.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:04 pmAren’t they accepting criminals, rapist, drug atticks and neo-cons?!!?!
With that list how in the heck could they miss any goal in recruiting, hell it cant get any lower..
June 11th, 2007 at 5:09 pm#5 Robert-
Acutally, kids from a white PRIVATE Christian High School have very little incentive to go fight in a war where they have a good chance of dying or being maimed. Most of the volunteers now are POOR, MINORITY kids will very little $$$ or such a poor education that getting into college is an impossibility.
The more dangerous it gets, the only white middle- to upper- class kids going into the service will be the deranged, thrill-seeking ones who we really don’t need representing our country. Haditha, anyone?
That’s why we should probably have a draft. To help even the playing field, and force the wealthy to look at the war as more than just a way to parlay their defense stocks into wealth.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:13 pm11,000 British Troops Have Gone AWOL Since Iraq War Began
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/11/nawol111.xml
June 11th, 2007 at 5:14 pmThe Army must have run out of White Supremacists. They’ve been recruting these domestic terrorists for years.
Aryan Nations graffiti has been spotted in Baghdad. You can bet these skinhead Nazis don’t think too highly of the Iraqi people.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:16 pm11,000 British troops AWOL since the start of the war
WOW thats 40 per week
ha ha ha ha
those that run away live to fight another day
thats what my gran always said
June 11th, 2007 at 5:16 pmLots of urban high schools will be graduating plenty of JROTC cadets this spring. Most will go right into the service, where they’re on the fast track to becoming a NCO. But they’re on the fast track to Iraq too.
Military recruiters will also be busy next fall, looking for kids who are flunking out of college. Easy pickins’.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:17 pm8000 US soldiers AWOL and 11,000 Brits??
I think the Brits only have about 8000 in Iraq.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:18 pm26 / yes The Neocons got right to the root of Fear
Health, social security, housing – - without these pople have no choice but join
June 11th, 2007 at 5:19 pm#23
June 11th, 2007 at 5:20 pmYou beat me to my idea! :)
That’s why we should probably have a draft. To help even the playing field, and force the wealthy to look at the war as more than just a way to parlay their defense stocks into wealth.
Comment by CW — June 11, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
Yeah… I’m sure a draft will do that. Remember how many rich-kids (some of whom later became president or vice-president) just happend to miss the Vietnam war??
I’m 40 years old, but I’d be right there on the beaches if someone came over here to make a fuss, but if they told me the law said I had to fight, I’d be happy to go to jail instead.
The draft is an old, usless concept. Even those in the military don’t want their lives depending on some bitter kid who was forced to fight. They’d rather have people who CHOSE to be there. I can see the politicians using it as a political chip, accusing each other of being for it in an effort to grab votes, but I can’t see them actually doing it. If for no other reason than the following:
Hey, here’s an idea, let’s take all the people who hate the war, train them to fight, and give them weapons. What could possibly go wrong?
June 11th, 2007 at 5:21 pm#28- “There’s no doubt about it—the Gangster Disciples are the biggest [gang] in the Army,†says Chicago Police Lieutenant Robert Stasch, who has spent 30 years tracking the group’s rise from a handful of street-corner hoodlums to what he calls “the most sophisticated criminal enterprise in the United States.â€
June 11th, 2007 at 5:23 pmhttp://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2007/06/09/gangs-of-iraq-military-quietly-enlisting-thousands-of-active-gang-members/
Ill never forget while I was in Brazil and going though Customs at Rio, to clear customs you had to wait in line then wait your turn to press a big button, Randomly the light would flash red as it did with me. then you got searched . most people got a green light and walked though
perhaps instead of a draft some fair method like this
June 11th, 2007 at 5:24 pmIt was reported that an expected transfer of 10,000 to 20,000 troops to Fort Bliss, Texas, caused FBI and local law enforcement to fear a turf war between “members of the FolkNation gang … (and) a criminal group that is already well-established in the area, Barrio Azteca.” The New York Sun wrote that, according to one FBI agent, “FolkNation, which was founded in Chicago and includes several branches using the name Gangster Disciples, has gained a foothold in the Army.”
June 11th, 2007 at 5:35 pmThe “other” statistic that would be chilling (if they released the truth) are the numbers of physical and mental casualties that are still carried on the manning rosters and/or those that are coerced into going back when they should not.
Just another example of how the BushCo’s hate the troops and consider them as so many battle-damaged Humvees.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:39 pmThe toll……….
If only they were fighting and dieing for a true cause and not for the war profiteers.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:39 pmheres a new recruiter video for the army please watch this
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f30_1181298436
June 11th, 2007 at 5:41 pmYou know it’s a lot easier to get poor young men to volunteer for the military if you arrest them on phony charges and tell them the only way they can stay out of prison is to join up. Who needs a draft?
June 11th, 2007 at 5:45 pmperhaps instead of a draft some fair method like this
Comment by Tobey Tall — June 11, 2007 @ 5:24 pm
No. The only ‘fair’ method I will accept is all volunteer, except that when the shooting starts, for everyone that earns over $200,000 a year or ANYONE in an elected office at the federal level, all eligible family members must immediately enlist. That might keep us out of the next war, or at least make us involved for the right reasons. I stress MIGHT.. They can still be complete morons.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:45 pmsploot test
June 11th, 2007 at 5:47 pmAs the message on my soon-to-be-arriving button states, “Draft the Rich-It’s Their War.”
June 11th, 2007 at 5:47 pmhows about giving the UN 10 million troops from all over the world – and leave them to police the world
If it were not mostly for American Foreign policy after say 1960 we would PROBABLY need no military worldwide apart from a UN force like above
June 11th, 2007 at 5:50 pm#41 – In Florida, the Recruiters are given access to prisoners serving time for lower level crimes that will allow them to sign them up and have the remainder of their sentence commuted, if they complete Basic Training.
How’s that for picking the “Best and the Brightest”? Then giving them advanced training (and access) to very lethal weapons, to take back on the streets with them.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:51 pmhows about giving the UN 10 million troops from all over the world – and leave them to police the world
If it were not mostly for American Foreign policy after say 1960 we would PROBABLY need no military worldwide apart from a UN force like above
Comment by Tobey Tall — June 11, 2007 @ 5:50 pm
I don’t know about you, but until the UN cleans up its act, I’d feel really nervous about turning a UN-controlled organization the strongest military force in the world. I’m actually in favor of one world government, but there just isn’t a government (or any organization) I trust to do it just yet.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:56 pmTobey, do you really think a UN military led force would work? If you think OUR military is politicized, just wait till the euros got their meathooks in to that one. I’ve worked under a UN commander before, and it was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had.
June 11th, 2007 at 6:08 pmrefresh test
June 11th, 2007 at 6:14 pmUN cleans up its act
im sure it will one day , after Bush and the Neocons have gone
and Kofi Annan comes back that new south Korean bloke is useless
June 11th, 2007 at 6:18 pmThey need more meat shields for Petraus. I guess people just don’t like being meat shields anymore.
June 11th, 2007 at 6:23 pmReally dumb question :
How can they logically say that they know its not the beginning of a downward trend ? Are they now basing their beliefs on a crystal ball to gaze into the future ?
The only answer I can see is that its not “the start” of a downward trend because a downward trend started in the past ??????
June 11th, 2007 at 6:48 pmHow the hell is this possible…
…with all of the war loving, al Cracker Bushites…
…waving their flags?
…Is America full of COWARDS?
June 11th, 2007 at 7:07 pmThe article tells you the Army was under it’s goal for this single month by 10% and that they are ahead of their goals to date.
The Marines on the other hand are 30% over their goals.
So to answer your question, I’d suggest they know this while you don’t is due to them basing their opinion on more than a single, introductory paragraph of whatever data is available.
Oh….. and when they beat their recruiting goals, they’ll hear about it and you won’t. Such is the nature of biased sources for news which choose to selectively report bad news only.
June 11th, 2007 at 7:22 pmhellinabucket; I wish you would not use the words military and intellegence in the same sentence, that is an oxymoron.
June 11th, 2007 at 7:22 pmREFRESH
June 11th, 2007 at 7:25 pmAs for the missed recruiting goal and downward trend, I say yes, yes, YES!
June 11th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Is recruiting for Blackwater up?
June 11th, 2007 at 8:43 pmThe problem isn’t with the military recruiters it is a well known fact that only 30% of American’s of military age are qualified, The problem lay within the schools and bad parenting.
June 13th, 2007 at 10:22 am