Recruiting Goals

I heard that the Army has been missing its recruiting goals lately by as much as 25%. A kinsman of my wife is a recruiter, and he has indicated that his job has become much more difficult.

What surprises me is that the Army is able to entice anyone at all to join now that there is a high likelihood of service in a dangerous area in a meaningless and evil cause. Even if the new soldier is not used in Iraq or Afghanistan, who knows what further evil lurks in the hearts of the current federal administration?

Up until the current administration, I could understand someone's enlistement. Hell, I did it myself about 25 years ago. I was attracted by the adventure and the challenge of the thing and believed, against all reason, that I was serving in the defense of my country. The propaganda ("Be All That You Can Be") was at least plausible, and the educational benefits were enticing.

In the First Gulf War, I worked as a Judge Advocate at a mobilization station where Guardsmen and Reservists were preparing to ship out to the conflict. The soldiers I dealt with were mostly ready to go but a little taken aback that they were being deployed in a mission that seemed to have so little bearing on national defense. They had signed up for the home guard so to speak and expected to get called up for defense of the homeland, not some foreign adventure. Poor schmucks, I thought. Soon after the war, I resigned my commission in the Reserves because I realized that I was at risk of being deployed abroad in conflicts with which I had issues of conscience.

What about the troops in Iraq now? I don't know enough now to decide whether they are mainly dupes in a mission they never contemplated or if they are mercenaries.

Anyone who signs up now is either a complete fool or a mercenary.