The military forces have been having some problems filling the empty spaces in the ranks, and have worked out several strategies, according to the Associated Press:

The Army has a master plan for recovering from this year's painful recruiting problems that includes new financial incentives for enlistees, greater use of computers, a new way for recruiters to make their pitch and a proposed finder's fee for soldiers who refer recruits.

The plan was assembled after the Army fell more than 6,600 recruits below of its goal of 80,000 for the year that ended Sept. 30. It was the first time it had fallen short since 1999.

Trouble filling the ranks in an unpopular war being fought for dishonorable reasons with dishonorable means, without sufficient water, food, ammunition, and personal armor. Who knew?

Opinion surveys indicate that daily reports of soldiers dying in Iraq have dampened young people's interest in joining the military, prompting the Army to try new ways to make the war work in its favor.

This is surprising news. And here I thought our younger generations were being educated to be stupid. Some of the plans include throwing money at the problem, which 15 years of Republican propaganda has told us is a foul, depraved, utterly wrong "librul" method.

blockquote>Since July the Army has been offering prospective recruits what it calls "assignment incentive pay." That is $400 a month in extra pay for as many as 36 months if an enlistee agrees to join any of the brigades of the 1st Cavalry Division or 25th Infantry Division scheduled to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Raymond DuBois, acting undersecretary of the Army, spearheaded the effort to identify new approaches. Some imitate recruiting practices used in the business world, and not all emphasize financial incentives.

Secretary DuBois seems jubilant about the idea of running the Army like a business. After all, it's worked so well throughout the rest of the Bu$hCo malAdministration, hasn't it?

The AP, always ready to be a patriotic booster, further reports:

Parts of this new strategy were put into practice several months ago; others await congressional approval. DuBois says the shifts began paying dividends this summer, when the Army exceeded its recruiting goals monthly from June through September, after missing for four straight months.

Secretary DuBois is being disingenuous, at best. At worst, he's lying like a cheap Persian rug, because the recruiting goals for the past few months were cut by 30%, in true Bu$hCo fashion, in order to finally report some kind of success about our "Mess o'potamia".

Ah, but Michael O'Hanlon, defense specialist at the Brookings Institution, is quick to call bullshit.

"Unless the situation in Iraq improves, or unless we drastically enlarge the pool of possible recruits in some way - for example, lowering academic standards for them, or even considering an extreme option like allowing foreigners to gain U.S. citizenship by serving - one would have to expect continued tough slogging for the Army."