From The Ramparts

Military Recruiters Having Problems Getting Cannon Fodder

Military Recruiters Having Problems Getting Cannon Fodder

“Tracking by the Pentagon shows that complaints about recruiting improprieties are on pace to again reach record highs set in 2003 and 2004. Both the active Army and Reserve missed recruiting targets last year, and reports of recruiting abuses continue from across the country. A family in Ohio reported that its mentally ill son was signed up, despite rules banning such enlistments and the fact that records about his illness were readily available. In Houston, a recruiter warned a potential enlistee that if he backed out of a meeting he'd be arrested. And in Colorado, a high school student working undercover told recruiters he'd dropped out and had a drug problem. The recruiter told the boy to fake a diploma and buy a product to help him beat a drug test. Violations such as these forced the Army to halt recruiting for a day last May so recruiters could be retrained and reminded of the job's ethical requirements. The Portland Army Recruiting Battalion Headquarters opened its investigation into Jared's case last week after his parents called The Oregonian and the newspaper began asking questions about his enlistment.”-www.newhousenews.com/archive/roberts

The US military is having problems recruiting young people to sign on the dotted line to serve as dupes and cannon fodder in their ruling elite bosses' imperialist follies. Things are so bad recruiting abuses are wide spread. In recent years we have seen how recruiters have lowered the standards to admit high school drop outs, substance abusers and now there are reports the Army is accepting young people with physical and mental disabilities. Even with all this the military is still missing their monthly goals. “The study, completed by the General Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, shows that 41 percent of the military's 1,484 job specialties have been consistently understaffed over the past five years, while 19 percent maintained staffing levels beyond what the Pentagon had authorized. The report suggests that for the active-duty Army, the Reserves, and the National Guard, the recruiting shortfalls of the past year have been even more severe than the aggregate numbers imply. The policy of overfilling positions while others languished, the report said, raised concerns about whether the Pentagon had given Congress an accurate picture of its ability to maintain the force it needs for Iraq and Afghanistan.” http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Militarys_recruiting_woes_worse_than_previously The military is struggling to keep a steady infusion of new recruits flowing and the sane people realize this will be a major problem as the NeoCon crazies attempt to foment additional wars around the world. The real deal is that the US military is straining to prevent a total collapse in morale as the hubris of the fascists attempt to establish AmeriKKKan hegemony around the globe. “The war in Iraq is the United States’ first sustained conflict since the military shifted to an all-volunteer force in 1973. As the casualty count of U.S. forces climbs past 2,000, strains are beginning to show in areas such as soldier morale, recruiting numbers, and retention rates. Nowhere is this issue more pressing than in the Army’s National Guard and Reserve, which are facing severe personnel and equipment shortages and 'rapidly degenerating into a broken force.' So wrote Lieutenant General James Helmly, the commander of Reserve units in Iraq, in a leaked memo to the Pentagon back in January. Reservists, whose numbers deployed overseas have swelled in recent years, now make up nearly half of the 152,000 forces in Iraq (49,000 National Guard, 22,000 Army Reserve, and 4,000 Marine Reserve). With one-third of all reservists deployed around the globe, this has added further strain to domestic operations, including the cleanup of the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.” http://www.cfr.org/publication/9101/recruitment_woes_for_us_guard_and_reserve.html
We are witnessing a strain on both active duty and reservists that is merely the tip of the iceberg. “This past fiscal year, which ended September 30, the National Guard missed its targeted goal of signing up 63,000 recruits by 19 percent. This marks only the second time the Guard has missed its targeted level since 1994 (by contrast, the Army and Navy Reserves missed their goals by 16 percent; the Marine Corps and Air Force Reserves met their goals). The Guard’s retention of troops has also declined in recent years. Previously, about one-half of new recruits were prior-service members of the Army. That figure has shrunk to 35 percent. All told, the National Guard is roughly 15,000 troops short of its stated goal of 350,000, according to Jones. Part of the recruitment problem stems from the war’s unpopularity. Recent polls indicate that slightly more than half of Americans say the war is not worth the costs. Television images of dead or wounded soldiers have had a negative impact on so-called influencers such as parents or relatives. Williams says parental support for enlisting their children has fallen in direct proportion to the waning support for the war. As such, recruiters have targeted their advertising campaigns increasingly at parents, of whom polls show 75 percent said they would not enlist their children in military service. ‘We’ve had to reset our entire messaging,’ Jones says”. http://www.cfr.org/publication/9101/recruitment_woes_for_us_guard_and_reserve.html keep in mind this quote is from one of the ruling elite’s primary organization’s Websites. The nefarious Council on Foreign Relations is one of the groups that promoted and pumped up the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Africans in AmeriKKKa are shunning the military. Unlike previous years when the military offered options for opportunity not found in the broader US culture, blacks are avoiding the military like they would a skunk at a garden party. The Iraq invasion was never popular with black folks and our people are really not interested in being cannon fodder for Bu$h’s wars for oil, US dollar hegemony and Israel. “Defense Department statistics show that the number of black active-duty enlisted personnel has declined 14 percent since 2000.The decrease is particularly acute among the troops most active in the Middle East: The number of black enlisted soldiers has dropped by 19 percent and the number of black enlisted Marines has fallen by 26 percent in the same period. Even in this area near Fort Bragg, where serving in uniform is a family tradition, the drop in Army enlistment by blacks from 2000 to 2005 matches the national average.” http://www.armytimes.com/story While the corporate mind control apparatus is spinning revulsion against the military in purely economic terms (booming economy more jobs etc), the fact of the matter is, in an economy that is experiencing a prolonged “jobless recovery” many blacks who would normally view the military as a viable option are not getting jobs. The proof of the pudding is the unemployment rate for blacks remains in double digits. Black boys’ mammas don’t raise fools, they’re not going to sign up to get killed for a lie! “The lack of support for the war by blacks — in uniform or not — is striking. A poll of Cumberland County residents, commissioned last year by The Fayetteville Observer, showed that 69 percent of whites said the war in Iraq was worth the costs. Only 19 percent of blacks agreed. The survey, conducted between March 31 and April 18, found that 71 percent of whites with military ties believed the Iraq war was worth fighting, but only 21 percent of blacks with military ties. Curtis Gilroy, who works on recruiting issues for the Department of Defense, said that sentiment has been noticed nationwide — and with concern. ‘We want to make sure all recruits see the military as a viable career option. But we also understand the reservations that individuals might have,’ he said. He noted the influence of adults such as parents, teachers and ministers on young people — and how their opposition to the war would make them less likely to recommend a military career. ‘Mothers, in particular within the black community, play a more prominent role and are far less likely to recommend military service,’ Gilroy said.” http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1578841.php
The ruling elites, their NeoCon, Republican and Democratic sock puppets have a major dilemma on their hands. The war is viewed as a waste, morally and fiscally and Bu$h and Cheney have lost all credibility except amongst their looniest fascist groupies. In a climate like this, even shameless chicken hawks like Bu$h and Cheney wouldn’t dare revive mandatory conscription (draft). A draft would set off massive social unrest, wide scale grassroots resistence and bring the Bu$h administration to its knees. At this point the NeoCons will be forced to stay with their extended tours of duty and their back door draft. This policy is creating major morale problems, which is why the retired generals are lashing out at Rumsfeld. They know technology alone cannot win an imperialist war. They also know the US military is being stretched to the breaking point by the NeoCon’s hubris and their delusions of empire. Inadequate equipment, low troop morale, mission disconnect, and the military’s inability to recruit more cannon fodder are causing the wheels literally and figuratively to fall off the US military imperial machine. The US in its’ arrogance has failed to learn the lessons why empires fall.

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 9:31 AM