Congratulations to the Army Recruitment Command, which exceeded its August 2007 enlistment goal, reportedly by just over one-half of 1%. Don’t laugh – it’s a significant figure, although it was expensive.

Army data obtained by The Washington Post show that the Army recruited 10,128 new troops in August, 528 more than the monthly goal of 9,600. Last month's recruiting total -- aided by a new $20,000 "quick ship" bonus that spurs people to leave for basic training within 30 days -- was the largest monthly total this fiscal year. The Army will now need to recruit about 8,000 people this month to meet its goal for the year.

Army officials declined to discuss the August numbers, pending an official Defense Department announcement that normally comes on the 10th of the month. Maj. Gen. Thomas Bostick, head of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday that he could not reveal the August total, saying only: "We had a very good month of August."

Since the goal was surpassed, the glory of the public announcement belongs to a political appointee at DoD. Perhaps MG Bostick will get to make monthly total announcements some other month if recruiting falls off.

It was good for the Army in part, Bostick said, because of the success of the quick-ship bonus, which has been available to almost all new recruits since July 25 and may have encouraged people who were "on the fence" about joining the Army to enlist in recent weeks. He said it is possible that the Army will extend the bonus.

According to Army recruiting data for late July and early August, the quick-ship bonus was extremely popular, with more than 90 percent of new recruits accepting the money in exchange for leaving their homes almost immediately. Bostick said that about 400 recruits who had been scheduled to leave in September opted instead to leave last month to pocket the bonus.

The ”Quick Ship” bonus pays $5,000 to any first term enlistee who agrees to go within less than 30 days of signing the contract. The Army has been putting a lot of money into obtaining fresh soldiers because the need is constant, and they are looking ahead to the expected expansion which will be needed since it appears both political parties understand we will need to keep a lot of troops fighting on the ground in Iraq the Middle East for the next couple of decades.

It seems fewer people are fired up by the desire to control all the oil.

Particularly troubling to the Army is the declining perceptions of the "influencers" -- such as parents, coaches and teachers -- who are increasingly discouraging young people from joining the military as a career. Bostick said the willingness of mothers to send their children to the Army has dropped from 40 percent in March 2004 to 25 percent now, according to Army data, while the willingness of fathers has dropped from 50 percent to 33 percent over the same period. … Also worrisome for the Army is the dropping desire of young adults to serve in the military. Bostick said that 20 years ago, approximately 25 percent of people ages 17 to 24 showed a desire to serve in the military, a figure that has dropped to 15.7 percent today.

The command levels of the military, especially the Army, seem to have been more and more subsumed into the Republican Party, eagerly parroting the message day in and day out. Sooner or later they will come to realize that the better way is to compel service. And there is so much prime, quality material available who support the Middle East conquest(s).

Stirling Newberry clarifies the War of the Bridges with a different focus:

A guerilla army must first neutralize the major military force's advantages of logistics, mobility and firepower, immobilize the major military force, it then procedes [sic] to bleed the major military force and finally shatter the brittle points in the major military force's ability to hold territory and critical points. First don't get killed, then fix in place, then put vulnerable points in exposed positions, and then deliver attacks with disproportionate effect. The occupation will end when the potential profits from the occupation are higher than the costs. Even if the major military force is "winning" on the ground, the key is to deny them the profits of occupation against the costs.

Fade-fix-bleed-shatter is the cycle of guerilla strategy. The major military has the inverse doctrine: ICA (Isolate, Concentrate, Annihilate).

The in the case of the guerilla force, one of the most important processes then, is to grind down the […] combat readiness of individual soldiers in the military. Since defeating a guerilla force requires vigilance and attention, fatigue is a powerful weapon. As importantly, the guerilla war cycle constantly tests the judgment of the people involved. Judgment is the mental capacity which is most clearly degraded by fatigue: the ability to rapidly make choices based on the weighing of large numbers of initially uncorrelated perceptions and pieces of information. As judgment of the major military force degrades, its collateral damage increases, its ability to separate the guerilla force from civilian population decre[a]ses, its ability to take advantage of temporary concentrations of guerillas decreases.

In short, judgment is the crucial quality which allows the major military to occupy, isolate, concentrate. The major military must then maintain judgment in the same way it maintains any other crucial form of readiness.

A surge is a term for a temporary increase in power, in military cases, manpower. This means that the present surge is created and maintained by holding forces in country longer, and by speeding up deployment of forces already scheduled to be sent. As with the 2004 surge with the Fallujah campaign, it has been a dismal failure at the military objectives. According the available information, the US has not secured any of Baghdad. The military situation is, still, a complete stalemate. This is because the very objective of the "surge" was counter to basic doctrine: land is not the key objective. Since Baghdad cannot be physically isolated from the rest of Iraq, removing guerillas from one part of the city merely means they can move to some other part.

It his however burning out the capacity of the occupation forces, and as importantly, it is being paid for by the commensurate reduction in Afghanistan. We are fighting two wars in the Middle East, and losing both of them. It is important to remember that Afghanistan has approximately the same population as Iraq. The basic security requirements will take the same amount of manpower, and since the government that was overthrown by the initial invasion was a cohesive political force, in the long term, the need for political change is going to drive security arrangements.

Mr Newberry’s points, especially the economic implications, are well-taken, although I would argue that control of land is essential to a successful occupation. Implicit with that phrase is the concept of controlling the movement of people. This control can be overt: a system of concentric controls: roadblocks, registration tables, document exam points, and the like. These are signs of an oppressive occupation, and the change to this system from a form of open passage can be understood to be an admission of a failing occupation. The recently announced plan to require all Baghdadis (and eventually all Iraqis) to be biometrically registered and issued with an ID card is the most egregious indicator yet of both the Bu$h malAdministration’s failure in Iraq and its original malign intent. The most recent excuse for conquest – the imposition of “democracy” (at the point of the gun barrel) falls into the trash heap of all the other excuses because of this requirement. Free people living under a democracy do not need roadblocks, identity checkpoints, and infallible ID cards. These are the tools of the oppressive occupier and the dictator.

Soldiers engaged in the oppression of occupation are doing the work of policemen and are unable to do the work they should properly be engaged in: the eradication of armed resistance. The (US) policemen that should be occupying are engaged in protecting logistic convoys to supply the troops. These forces are unequal to the task, and are being reinforced by sailors and airmen. The soldiers’ footsteps as they march run away from Army careers will be echoed by sailors and airmen who have been drafted into assignments they did not enlist for. Thus the failed imperial ambitions of a failed administration will create outward spreading ripples engulfing the other services.

The “surge” to gain control of Baghdad has failed. Because of poor planning its avowed purpose, controlling the Sunni resistance, has failed as the resistance leaders and an estimated 80% of the fighters melted away to surface in another province and continue their struggle there. The “surge” has degenerated into as many attacks against the Sadr Army as can be made, along with an unremitting propaganda campaign against Iran, in a foolish attempt to goad that country into precipitate action. After all, a White House befuddled and humiliated by the inability of a military to occupy, a mission it isn’t trained, equipped or qualified for, might as well start another war of conquest in order to quiet domestic criticism.

Army Times is reporting that the Army still [ed: again?] has a problem getting the bodies into the green bag, and HQ, US Army has come up with a dynamic solution.

The Army is immediately ordering 1,106 former recruiters back to that duty. The soldiers are being pulled from their current assignments and sent to recruiting stations across the nation as the army struggles to meet its mission in signing up 80,000 new soldiers this year.

The short-notice assignments are temporary — they begin Friday and will run no later than Oct. 15.

The Army has several thousand assigned recruiters already. They are paid their regular pay, plus special duty pay since they normally live off the economy, including rent in a civilian pad where rents are normally higher than what’s available just off base. I believe they also get some form of body bonus, but I doubt it’s the $2,000 per that these 1,106 GIs are gong to be paid on this TDY assignment.

The recruiting assignments will be performed in temporary duty (TDY) status, and soldiers will return to home stations and regular assignments after completing their recruiting duties.

Noncommissioned officers selected for these assignments will be eligible for Recruiting Command’s $2,000 Referral Bonus Program.

This means the soldiers are authorized a $2,000 bonus for every applicant who successfully processes into the Army and completes initial entry training.

With two months still to run on this fiscal year, the Army is short approximately 15,000 recruits to fill the quota for the year.

These are the troops needed to sustain Generalissimo Field Marshal Kagan’s surge escalation through the summer of 2008, which is the latest move of the goal posts.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, mentioned none of the proposals in Congress for beginning to withdraw U.S. troops as soon as this fall. But he made clear in an interview that in his area of responsibility south of Baghdad, it will take many more months to consolidate recent gains.

“It’s going to take through [this] summer, into the fall, to defeat the extremists in my battle space, and it’s going to take me into next spring and summer to generate this sustained security presence,” he said, referring to an Iraqi capability to hold gains made by U.S. forces.

Lynch said he had projected in March, when he arrived as part of the troop buildup, that it would take him about 15 months to accomplish his mission, which would be summer 2008.

By shoving all the decision points from September 2007 December 2007 into the Summer of 2008 the Army leadership has guaranteed they get at least three more swings at the piñata before it’s November 2008 and anything that happens after that is of course not Mr Bu$h’s fault. *

Under Lynch’s command are two of the five Army brigades that President Bush ordered to the Baghdad area in January as part of a revised counterinsurgency strategy. As part of that surge of forces, Lynch’s command was created in order to put added focus on stopping the flow of weapons and insurgents into the capital from contentious areas to the south.

The three other brigades are in Baghdad and a volatile province northeast of the capital with the purpose of securing the civilian population in hopes that reduced levels of sectarian violence will give Sunni and Shiite leaders an opportunity to create a government of true national unity and to pass legislation designed to promote reconciliation.

Lynch said that Iraqi security forces are not close to being ready to take over for the American troops. So if the extra troops that were brought in this year are to be sent home in coming months, the insurgents — both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups — will regain control, he said. [emph added]

So, even though they sold Generalissimo Field Marshal Kagan’s escalation as a short term fix – surprise! You fucked up! You trusted us!

“To me, it would be wrong to take ground from the enemy at a cost — I’ve lost 80 soldiers under my command — 56 of those since the fourth of April. It would be wrong to have fought and won that terrain, only to turn around and give it back,” he said in an interview with two reporters who traveled with him by helicopter to visit troops south and west of Baghdad.

Because it would be wrong to have soldiers killed in a foolish enterprise drawn up by a political hack and not continue to throw more bodies into the qWagmire.

As I’ve said before, they should have shut down all the training bases in the US, except for one. They should have sent every swinging dick in CONUS – except for the recruiters, and some DIs to train up the recruits.

The best solution, of course, is to collect up every single walking soldier – everyone in uniform – every swinging dick of them (apologies to the ladies reading this) – including all those female soldiers, who obviously are not as above, and move them all the Iraq. NOW. AT ONCE. TODAY. That includes all the training cadres and Drill Sergeants, except a few that we’ll keep at one training base in the US. It includes every single last solitary Brigadier General and Colonel messenger boy in the Pentagon, every last Major assigned to counting paper clips each morning and ensuring they’re all facing in the same direction. Every single Captain whose job is to carry a General’s briefcase. Everybody goes.

Then, six months from now, there will be no more excuses, no more mealy-mouthed weaseling from these warmongering cowards at the White House, AEI, Weekly Standard, and Fox Noise. And then the nation can get on with repairing the damage these creatures have caused.

What‘s that you say? What will we do with all the extra officers if we clean out the Pentagon?

Maintaining 156,000 troops in Iraq from now until Mr Bu$h saddles up ole Marines #1 and rides off into the sunset, and dust of historical obscurity is going to require sending just about every swinging dick in a military uniform. (Apologies to the uniformed women of the US Armed Forces, who truly clank when they walk.) That would include a very large number of Majors, Colonels and even Brigadier Generals currently employed as messengers, walking folders around the corridors of the Pentagon. We could probably field at least one more brigade with those linoleum-trotters and never feel the difference. They could take turns playing brigade commander, and build up their Form 20s.

* - While discussing Mr Bu$h's scheduled departure in January 2009 it's important to remember that the Republican Party has no intention of losing more power in the November 2008 elections. As we have seen not only the Justice Department, but all the other Departments have been marshaled to ensure the election of Republicans gets the full support of the entire Federal Government.

This presupposes of course that there is no tragic and deadly terror-linked event in October 2008 which would cause Mr Bu$h to regretfully suspend the elections in order to maintain order and the continuity of the Government. Naturally, elections would be continued just as soon as the National Emergency is over.

Naturally.

Anyone who remembers Fed Zinnemann’s remarkable film From Here to Eternity probably remembers the song Reenlistment Blues, lyrics written by James Jones.

Reenlistment procedures have changed since then, and so have attitudes.

A very unusual story here about wounded and maimed GIs being recycled.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — In the blur of smoke and blood after a bomb blew up under his Humvee in Iraq, Sgt. Tawan Williamson looked down at his shredded leg and knew it couldn't be saved. His military career, though, pulled through.

Less than a year after the attack, Williams is running again with a high-tech prosthetic leg and plans to take up a new assignment, probably by the fall, as an Army job counselor and affirmative action officer in Okinawa, Japan.

In an about-face by the Pentagon, the military is putting many more amputees back on active duty — even back into combat, in some cases.

Williamson, a 30-year-old Chicago native who is missing his left leg below the knee and three toes on the other foot, acknowledged that some will be skeptical of a maimed soldier back in uniform.

"But I let my job show for itself," he said. "At this point, I'm done proving. I just get out there and do it."

SGT Williamson found the medical help to get back up on his foot, and learned to adapt to life with a prosthetic. Good for him. A thinking man could probably come up with two baskets full of clichés about this story, but it may well be that an Army stretched as this as ours is, and faced with decades of dangerous and deadly occupation duty in the hellhole of Iraq, needs every uniform it can front.

There are assignments a less-than-whole soldier can perform with skill, and the duty slot SGT Williamson is apparently scheduled for is well within his physical capabilities. It’s unlikely he would get much assistance through the VA until we’ve had a Democratic president and a Congress with a strong Dem majority for at east three years.

So far, the Army has treated nearly 600 service members who have come back from Iraq or Afghanistan without an arm, leg, hand or foot. Thirty-one have gone back to active duty, and no one who asked to remain in the service has been discharged, Arata said.

Most of those who return to active duty are assigned to instructor or desk jobs away from combat. Only a few — the Army doesn't keep track of exactly how many — have returned to the war zone, and only at their insistence, Arata said.

To go back into the war zone, they have to prove they can do the job without putting themselves or others at risk.

Going back into combat may be a step too far. (With the deepest apologies to all the soldiers with prosthetics. No insult intended.) No matter how remarkable a prosthetic is, it is only a replacement and the state of the art hasn’t reached the point of building COL Steve Austins.

One of our faithful readers, WK, pointed out a story today that is fascinating. We all know – well, those of us who breathe oxygen, and walk erect, that is – that our armed forces are woefully undermanned for the task(s) assigned them by the Likud Party: conquest of the Middle East, and destruction of society and infrastructure of all Arab nations. The wholesale use of IEDs are causing troops to be killed and maimed in horrendous fashion, and those blessed to survive their deployment tours with whole bodies are now being fed back into the meat grinder for second and third tours. Incidents of PTSD are at frighteningly high levels, and one can only expect both casualties and PTSD to rise even further when the ground combat phase of the impending attack against Iran manifests itself.

Our volunteer forces - all branches – have performed magnificently in answer to Mr Bu$h’s call for Imperium. Even though I hate this evil war and occupation, I get a lump in my throat every time I think of the grunts and their dedication to the flag. Patriotism doesn’t have to be a bad thing. While we maintain that we are a peaceful nation, there is a martial spirit that is either inspiring or troubling depending on your outlook. But it’s enough to just say that Americans do answer their country’s call to bear arms at moments of crisis.

And we’re woefully short handed. The Navy and Air Force have released troops from over-stocked MOSs for ground combat training as convoy guards and point security at facilities. The Army has decided that they will add two more divisions – about 40,000 troops – to their ranks over the next five years, and the Marine Corps plans to expand by about 22,000 over the same period.

Marine Corps will ask thousands to come back

The Marine Corps plans to ask up to 100,000 former Marines released from the ranks since September 2001 whether they would like to come back.

Speaking at the Pentagon on Friday, Lt. Gen. Emerson Gardner, the Corps’ deputy commandant for programs and resources, said many of those Marines had either hinted that they’d like to have re-enlisted at the time they got out or were told outright that no slots were available in which they could re-enlist.

“In the past, we’ve had a number of people who have desired to re-enlist in a particular job specialty, and, unfortunately, there is not enough room in the Marine Corps to keep them on, so we have released them from active duty,” Gardner said.

“But anecdotally, we’re all familiar with people that have gotten out of the Marine Corps, and you talk to them a year or two later and they say, ‘You know, if I had to do it over again, I sure would like to have stayed,’ ” Gardner said.

“We’re going to offer them that opportunity. Our commandant will make a call to arms and see what number of those 100,000 would be willing to come back on active duty,” Gardner said.

I’m from an older generation. I placed second in the Greater South East Asia Wargames of 1965-1975, and after my release from the hospital I extended my active duty service beyond the usual three years for the expressed purpose of career development in a particular field that is rather arcane. As it turned out, it didn’t turn out, and I left a couple of years later. But I stayed in touch with a number of people I met, EM and Officers, who left active duty when the chance came. And none of them ever expressed any interest in getting back into the green bag afterwards. That Army was mainly composed of draftees and it’s not surprising they politely laughed at the Re-enlistment NCO before their separation.

Today’s Army is wholly voluntary and I wonder how many of the soldiers (and marines) who left after 9/11/2001 would like another bite of the apple.

This question really has to be considered within the context of Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, because it looks like that will be our military horizon for the next 10 or 15 years. Citizens opting to get back in understand where they will be going and what they will be doing. I can’t conceive of anyone doing it for the adrenaline rush, so the motivations would seem to be patriotism, no economic hope in civilian life, a determination to make a career of service. I suppose a burning hatred for Muslims might be considered a factor, and I just don’t want to debate the rightness or wrongness of any one of these motivations.

Why did they leave? Why did the Corps allow them to leave? And if the Corps (or Army) heaved a quiet sigh of relief when they left, would they now be welcome again?

All I’m curious about is whether LTG Garner is right when he says he knows people are trying to bust down the doors.

Our Army is being broken. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

It’s not just first-term enlisted men refusing to stay in the Army. The loss of trained, motivated, troops affects tomorrow’s Army, because that is the recruiting pool for the mid-level and senior NCOs of the Army of the 2010’s. For many of them, two tours in Iraq in 40 months is enough. They're tired of "stop loss" programs extending their terms of enlistment. In an effort to replace this valuable pool of soldiers the Army has reduced their entrance requirements, lowering both the mental and “moral” qualifications. Where once a high school diploma, or GED was required in support of a demanded AFQT score, they Army is now accepting enlistees both without a diploma or certificate, and lower test scores. They’ve also announced they will accept soldiers with minor drug offense records, as long as they test clean. (I’m sure such troops will be periodically tested throughout their service.)

Lower level NCOs, E-5s and E-6s with 10 or 12 years service are also pulling the pin, prompted by the idea of third, and undoubtedly fourth deployments in “the sandbox” of Iraq, Afghanistan, and wherever Mr Bush decides to go next in his desperate floundering to maintain a Republican majority in Congress. Another concern for these older, seasoned soldiers is family obligations. Many are married, with children and the wives of some have to make hard decisions about watching their man go off every 14 months for another years of daily fear every time they see an officer in an Army sedan. Army wives don’t like Mr Bush and Mr Rumsfeld announcing a “long war” or “never-ending war of cultures.”

And it’s not just the enlisted men, either.

Why the US Army Is Losing Its Lieutenants by James Dunnigan May 29, 2005

The U.S. Army is losing its lieutenants and captains at the rate of 8.7 percent a year. Indications are that this rate will increase. The main reason is the prospect of constant overseas assignments, without their families, for the duration of the war on terror. This causes problems with the officers families. Then there is the pull of better job prospects in an improving economy. The prospect of losing over ten percent of your junior officers a year is compounded by the fact that a disproportionate number of these will be those with the most combat experience.

A third factor in the exodus is the dislike of the army’s “force protection” fixation. The army puts a lot of emphasis on keeping casualties down. But a lot of the combat commanders interpret this as doing as little as possible. This, despite the fact that those commanders who get outside their camps a lot, reduce enemy activity and American casualties. But these aggressive tactics come with some risk, and many battalion and brigade commanders (lieutenant colonels and colonels) are more risk averse than the captains and lieutenants (company and platoon commanders). Once you hit lieutenant colonel, you are making the army a career, and are less inclined to take chances. But captains and lieutenants can afford to take chances, and are put off when their bosses are not.

Make no mistake about it. Bu$hCo has told the senior generals to keep casualties down. In the White House, this is not compassionate concern for the troops. Over there, everything is analyzed for its political potential. And they know flag-draped coffins lose votes. That’s a major reason why photography is prohibited when the dead come home. Their families are even prohibited from standing on the ramp to see their beloved’s “transfer tube” unloaded. They also don’t want anyone to take photos of the daily planes arriving from Landstuhl, filled with stretchers of limbless and brain-damaged troops.

Those who know, who lead, and have led, know the problems, and are finally speaking out.

CNN is reporting that a fifth retired general is calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation.

“I really believe that we need a new secretary of defense because Secretary Rumsfeld carries way too much baggage with him. … Specifically, I feel he has micromanaged the generals who are leading our forces there,” said retired Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, former commander of the 82nd Airborne Division.

Actually, this may be the sixth general. Generals Newbold, Eaton, Zinni, and Batiste have gained prominent attention in calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation. But another less-noticed general, Ret. Army

Gen. John Riggs, told the Washington Post recently:
[Riggs] believes that his peer group is “a pretty closemouthed bunch” but that, even so, his sense is “everyone pretty much thinks Rumsfeld and the bunch around him should be cleared out.”

Given the inability of Bush to do what needs to be done, it’s time to revisit one of “Rumsfeld’s Rules” pertaining to presidential staff:
Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.

Don’t think for a second that these six General Officers are the lone dissenters. We will see more and more retired Generals and senior Colonels speaking out over the next two months. They have many supporters, still in uniform. These men are prominent citizens. They have proven themselves in war and peace, and their numbers as well as their records of service will force the corporate media to discuss them. Karl Rove doesn’t have enough hours in the day, nor enough backroom operators skilled enough to swiftboat all of them. And if he tries, he will be shocked. These men kept quiet when Senator Kerry was slimed as a traitor and coward. They will speak out, and they will fight back in the press. And their friends and comrades still in uniform will support them as much as possible.

Look for more revelations like Seymour Hersh’s exposes of sadistic torture and child rape at Abu Ghraib prison, and now the revelations of the upcoming plan to destroy Iran’s technical plants with nuclear attack.

And once Mr Rumsfeld is driven from office, these men will start in on Mr Cheney and Mr Bush. They know the clock is ticking. There is a timetable, and it is geared to the November mid-term elections. Bu$hCo must strike Iran about a month before those elections if they are to preserve the Republican majority and prevent the impeachment of both Mr Bush and Mr Cheney.

Kanye West had it almost right at NBC’s concert for Hurricane Katrina relief. “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” Actually, George Bush doesn’t care about the troops either. George Bush cares about George Bush, and about Barbara Bush, because for his entire life she has derided him, belittling him, comparing him unfavorably to his father who actually had the courage to fly in combat, an assignment George moved heaven and earth to avoid himself. Maybe she though she was inspiring him, giving him a goal to look to, and to aspire to beat. If that was her goal, she failed to make him into a man.

This was so good I blatantly stole it from Chidyke, over at CorrenteWire, who stole it from some comments somewhere:

Stolen, blatantly, from the boards:

We’ll send you into the desert without sufficient armor, in insufficient numbers, with no coherent plan for the occupation; we’ll do so under false pretenses. We’ll condone torture; we’ll call the Geneva Conventions quaint. When you get home, we’ll cut vets’ benefits. To any vet willing to speak his/her mind in opposition, the examples of Max Cleland (insufficiently patriotic), John Kerry (liar, exaggerator, traitor) and John McCain (mentlly unstable) will be brought to bear by the people around a President who avoided service in the Champagne Unit of TANG.

That’s a message to the troops, if ever I’ve seen one.

ProfWombat | 03.28.06 - 9:32 am | #

Are you listening, guys?

Vets who read here (all 12 of you) and others who aren’t vets (three of you) should, I hope, be discussing topics like this with any uniformed member of the Armed Services you come into contact with. I’m not suggesting you advocate desertion or going AWOL. That’s wrong. It’s a crime, and can conceivably doom that service member to spending the rest of his life hiding in another country, separated from his loved ones. But I see no harm in individuals doing their best to counter the 24/7 pro-war propaganda served up on Armed Forces Radio and TV over there in the sandbox.

The two most successful methods of propaganda are the Big Lie, endlessly repeated (Bu$hCo and Fox News) and telling one small part of the truth and having it relate to the experience of one or two listeners. That’s how you gain credence with your audience, and prepare them for the next small grain of truth. It’s a slow process; you’re actually re-educating your audience.

To paraphrase Arlo Guthrie:

You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick andthey won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement.

Wayne Long is a retired US Colonel, living in Nairobi, and argues in the International Herald Tribune for a new and quite different solution to the manpower shortage faced by the US Armed Forces.

America's principal ground fighting force is stretched to breaking point. Both the active and reserve components of the U.S. Army have nearly reached their recruiting limits in strength, given attitudes in America. Fighting international terrorism simply does not have the same appeal for the post-Baby Boom generation as fighting fascism did for the generation of World War II. Understanding that the draft was no longer viable in the post-Vietnam era, the army leadership developed the All Volunteer Army in the 1970s in order to meet the defense challenges of the late 20th century, which were mostly short- term conflicts. This approach served well in Grenada, Panama and the first Gulf War. That same leadership also foresaw future situations involving protracted conflict, and determined that the army would only go into prolonged combat with the National Guard and army reserves fighting alongside the active component.

With regard to the nearly broken Army, Mr Long seems to be accurate. This point has been stated many times by civilian observers, a few forthright Congressmen like Jack Murtha, who are somewhat courageous in the face of the typical Bu$hCo ad hominem attacks that these days take the place of honest and logical debate. But Mr Long is just plain wrong in his effort to conflate WWII’s anti-fascism fight with today’s anti-terrorism battle. The fight against terrorism has not broken the Army. We were doing pretty well in Afghanistan, which was the “right” war to fight. It was Bu$hCo’s insistence on moving the fight to Iraq, which had no part of 9/11, which has broken the Army. Iraq wasn’t about terrorism, when we started there, although it certainly is now. We caused the terrorism in Iraq. Initially, Iraq was all about money, and it has cost our nation dearly.

We all know the details: insufficient planning, insufficient overarching strategy, insufficient troops, insufficient protection, insufficient food, insufficient water. Insufficient. Insufficient. Insufficient.

This arrangement has managed to delay the onset of manpower shortages in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it has not resolved the issue, and potential for conflict in Iran or Syria or elsewhere only exacerbates the problem. The United States does not have enough ground troops now, and the pace being set poses a grave risk to the army in terms of both morale and readiness.

Well, yes, because until Iran and Syria are conquered, one of the primary tenets of PNAC neoconservatism, the absolute political and military safety of Israel will remain unfulfilled. Additionally, Big Oil requires the entire Middle East area be safely under US military rule in order to enable their long-term astronomic profits.

It’s a conundrum, but Mr Long has a solution:

The good news is that there is a large untapped resource of potential manpower that has not ever been considered by the army: huge numbers of young foreign military age males who have green cards and are eagerly seeking U.S. citizenship, or are awaiting visas in their homelands. In exchange for U.S. citizenship at end of enlistment, these young men could be vetted and recruited by the army on five-year terms at recruiting stations in the United States and around the world. Placed in their own infantry units, and led by seasoned U.S. citizen officers and noncommissioned officers, they could be trained in the latest techniques of light infantry tactics and counterinsurgent warfare, and appropriately equipped for that mission - forming, in essence, an American Foreign Legion. Once ready, these Legion units could be folded into the deployment cycle of the all-U.S. units to Southwest Asia, thus easing the strain there. Eventually, this would permit a number of U.S. regular forces to be withdrawn from the deployment cycle and earmarked for other missions. Equal pay and modified benefit issues would have to be worked out, and the overall expense might require some army hi-tech developments to be placed on hold, but that would be a small price to pay for relief of the current problem.

I have to admit I gasped when I read this. It’s an idea that does have some merit, in a quirky way. I’m sure there are thousands of young men around the world who would leap at the chance for a green card, and eventual citizenship.

But is it a good idea? It worked for France, after a fashion. The Foreign Legion has a tradition of more than a century of valorous service and sacrifice. Ask a man with a kepi blanc where his loyalties lie and he will tell you it is to the Legion, and not to France. He will obey his commanders’ orders, and France has usually been scrupulously careful to staff the Legion with some of their best officers. Granted, the Algerian rebellion and subsequent assassination attempts against de Gaulle were an anomaly, but the Legion was basically a steadfast and utterly dependable part of France’s armed forces.

Can we depend upon Bu$hCo to staff this suggested American Foreign Legion with the best officers? I don’t even know where to begin.

And these forces would not be ready for two or more years, because not only is there the one year lead time for training, there would be an additional year needed for recruiting, security clearances, language training and acculturation. Can our Armed Forces “hold on” for two more years, or longer?

And why would “equal pay and benefit issues” be a concern. Are we going to treat our hired hands as second class citizens? That’s a good way to welcome them to American citizenship, isn’t it?

All superpowers, from ancient times to the modern era, have seen their civilian populations grow more and more disinclined to serve in their national defense forces. Inevitably they have all turned to mercenaries to defend their interests, thereby extending their national integrity, their ways of life and their unchallenged supremacy.

Ah. Yes. And all those superpowers are now in the dustbin of history, overwhelmed by the barbarians, including the barbarians they hired to protect them. None of the superpowers’ empires lasted, precisely because the citizenry refused to defend their rights and way of life, choosing instead the option of asking others to do it for them.

But, I might be wrong. What do you think?

More about Mr Long another time.

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."

I wish there was a way to write this so that conservatives would have to read it, because then they might understand it. The fact that soldiers are re-enlisting at a high rate doesn't make up for the problem of getting fewer new enlistees.

Army Times has the latest news about recruiting. Check this out.

Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody conceded today that the Army’s missed recruiting goal means there’s no way to cut back on stop-loss anytime soon.
“It does have an impact,” Cody said at the Association of the Unites States Army’s annual meeting. “We are still an Army in stop-loss; I think if we had met this year’s [goal] we could have taken a look at stop-loss and readjusted.”

Read on...

Continue reading "Putting two and two together"

Well here we are on the last day of the fiscal year. Back when I had a short stint as a recruiter, it was always amusing to watch (ahem) another service which shall remain unidentified, literally bring in warm bodies to the AFEES station (AFEES, the Armed Forces Entrance and Examining Stations are now called MEPS, Military Entrance Processing Stations, I believe) to get a physical, an ASVAB and an interview, so they could be counted on the 30th of September as "recruits". If they didn't pop positive on the urinalysis for drugs or diabetes, they would find themselves shipped off to basic training within 18 to 24 hours. At that point if they were booted out, and given a free bus ride home, it didn't matter to the recruiter or that services recruiting command, they were counted as "accessions" and the "goal" was met. Needless to say, on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of September it got pretty busy around the AFEES, I always tried to get my officer candidates through their physicals before mid-September, I knew what was coming. It was not a pretty picture. It was all about making numbers. Well, guess what?

The Army is closing the books on one of the leanest recruiting years since it became an all-volunteer service three decades ago, missing its enlistment target by the largest margin since 1979 and raising questions about its plans for growth.
...
Officials insist the slump is not a crisis.

Because crisis is just not the word to use when disaster is a more accurate description.

The Army has not published official figures yet, but it apparently finished the 12-month counting period that ends Friday with about 73,000 recruits. Its goal was 80,000. A gap of 7,000 enlistees would be the largest - in absolute number as well as in percentage terms - since 1979, according to Army records.

The Army National Guard and the Army Reserve, which are smaller than the regular Army, had even worse results.
...
The factors working against the Army, Hilferty said, are a strong national economy that offers young people other choices, and "continued negative news from the Middle East."

Gee, imagine that "continued negative news from the Middle East", who'd have thought that would deter parents from recommending that their children get on a big silver bird and spend a year in the sand. The Army is spending a lot of money to try and influence parents to see the Army as a viable option for their kids. Is it working? The jury is still out, but early indications are that it's not working too well.

I'm going to go to a "career night" at my daughters high school, and introduce myself to the local recruiters who are there, and see if they'll let me hang out with them. There are a lot of ribbon-bedecked SUV's in that parking lot every day, so many that you'd think I'll see them lined up three deep to sign up. We'll see. I'm guessing I'll be buying those recruiters a beer or two afterwards and have them tell me that General Quarters in summer without air conditioning is more fun than sitting in high school career days and watching young men and women who once might have considered an enlistment now avoid them like they have monkey pox.

Which brings up that question, with the lowered real accessions i.e. those who actually make it through Basic Training (and I notice that they Army is not releasing that number, thank you very much), and the growing demands for soldiers in Iraq, as well as other global committments, is anyone else wondering how long until those dreaded words "Mandatory National Service" rear their ugly head? Because unlike the budget, where the administration chooses to keep handing out IOU's in exchange for services rendered, they can't just fabricate warm bodies to fill the ranks of the military.

So, what's it going to be? Stay tuned...