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Is the Army Playing a Shell Game?

By TChris, Section Military Draft
Posted on Wed Jun 08, 2005 at 11:13:58 AM EST
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by TChris

The Army knew that it couldn't meet its goal of recruiting 8,050 new soldiers per month, so in May it lowered the goal to 6,700 recruits. Despite vigorous efforts to persuade high school seniors to enlist, the Army missed the new goal by 25 percent.

Because of a series of recent incidents in which Army recruiters were found to be breaking or bending rules to meet their monthly quotas, two senior Army officials acknowledged that the shift in May could leave the impression that the Army was playing "a shell game" with its recruiting figures, shifting its goals to make the numbers look better than they are.

The officials claim that impression would be "unjustified." Supporting that impression, however, is this:

The Pentagon has delayed until Friday the public release of May recruiting figures for all the armed services, a decision some military officials say is an effort to minimize what has become a drumbeat of bad news for the Army and the Marine Corps at the beginning of each month.

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    Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? | 13 comments (13 topical)
    Re: Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? (none / 0) (#1)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:51 PM EST
    Seeing as the war in Iraq has nothing to do with protecting the homeland or our liberty, you would have to be starving or crazy to join the army. It will be a long time before the youth trust our govt. enough to join the military. The fight for freedom is here at home, and the enemy is our govt.

    Re: Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? (none / 0) (#2)
    by desertswine on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:51 PM EST
    Is the army playing a shell game? Why, yes.

    Re: Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:51 PM EST
    That will be one of Bush's legacies--scaring people away from the military. When you consider the recruiting numbers in conjunction with the AWOL numbers, it doesn't present a pretty picture of the Bush military.

    Re: Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? (none / 0) (#4)
    by john horse on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:51 PM EST
    The problem that the Army has with recruiting is a reflection of the disatisfaction that the American people feel toward the war in Iraq. According to the latest WP/ABC poll, 3/4 feel that the level of casualties is unacceptable, 2/3 say the military is bogged down, 4 in 10 say that the situation is becoming like Vietnam, and a slight majority, 52%, now believe that the war in Iraq has not contributed to our security from terrorism. As retired Army Col. Andrew J. Bacevich points out "It appears that Americans are coming to the realization that the war in Iraq is not being won and may well prove unwinnable...That conclusion bleeds over into a conviction that it may not have been necessary in the first place." The occupation of Iraq is unsustainable.

    Re: Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:51 PM EST
    I agree with the above, but the conclusion you make, john, is incorrect. Remeber how Bush refused to use the word occupation? This is DISMANTLEMENT, or in Bushese, DISASSEMBLY. Genocide, to install airbases in former Iraq, as well as the privatization of such illegal actions (including 'privatization' to the CIA. What traitor Ollie North called "Off the shelf capacity" -- the shelf being the one holding the Constitution). "There is no more Iraq. There will be three territories." -- H. F* Kissinger, genocidist, unaware he was being recorded, early 2004. The method is not 'winning,' it is civil war,with twin goals of destruction of the Iraqi state and nationhood, and elimination (by chaos, murder, US and Iraqi bombing, whether from air or from the street) of the leadership class and much of the country's intelligencia (always a goal of genocide). As for the US military, the method is PRIMARILY to destroy the Guard so that martial law in the US has less opposition. The services have themselves been grossly perverted by forcing US soldiers to fight next to hired mercs from every rightwing deathsquad in the world. When the draft comes -- there won't be a need for no stinking volunteer army -- suckers. Only sociopaths who want to kill anyone when ordered are welcome. And that draft will/would come either after another attack (with Bush's patented "Whoops" negligence, count on it), or after continued rape of the Constitution creates an unstoppable federal power.

    Re: Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? (none / 0) (#6)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:51 PM EST
    C'mon all you christian soldiers. ONWARD!! You would think that the republican offspring would be thronging to the recruiters to fight the good fight. You would think.

    Re: Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:51 PM EST
    Che- You'd also think that all the cheerleaders for this war would be eager to go off. Instead, White Feathers to Hannity, Limbaugh, Goldberg, and numerous other chickenhawks.

    Re: Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? (none / 0) (#8)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:51 PM EST
    Including the 101st Keyboard Battalion that regularly puts in time battling for the occupation on these boards.

    Re: Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? (none / 0) (#9)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:51 PM EST
    Recruitment went way up after 9/11. What does Karl have up his sleeve?

    Re: Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:51 PM EST
    What Army? What government? What economy? Who in the hell do they think they are? Something new and different is needed. Maybe it will be this.

    Re: Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? (none / 0) (#11)
    by DawesFred60 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:52 PM EST
    I was in the old Army we never played games!..Much, this is just one more joke on us all.

    Re: Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:52 PM EST
    But the good news is the choco ration is going up!

    Re: Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:55 PM EST
    How about legalizing drug consumption for the armed services? File under "killing two birds" Pun intended.

    Is the Army Playing a Shell Game? | 13 comments (13 topical)