Is it needless fear mongering to point out the failure of the armed forces to meet its recruiting goals every month this year? And May's numbers so bad that they have had to put off releasing them on time in order to try and come up with a spin for the public that doesn't make it seem like a giant disaster. Numbers being bandied about the liberal websites are 40% decrease. Around the conservative 25% decrease. Either choice isn't all that great and should raise a flag of caution and alarm.
So why the low turn out? Can it be that the Administration's efforts to promote a 'pay no attention to the war -life as usual" attitude has backfired to the point that people don't see a need to join up. The Administration keeps telling us things are going well. The fighting is over there. Nowhere near our backyard. There's no rationing. No war bonds. No real indication in the average American's life that there is a war going on at all.
I bet the same thing can't be said for the average Iraqi though which could explain why the 'insurgency' hasn't been crushed under heel and ground out like all the early pundits predicted (and all the military leaders said was a pipedream)
Or could the decrease in enlistment be the result of a growing consciousness and concern that the war isn't going as well as our leaders are telling us. As the truth slowly trickles into the collective understanding of the citizenry, is there a reluctance to take part in what is perceived as a more and more dangerous and untenable action? Every car bomb that explodes, every suicide bomber that tries to destroy a checkpoint, every spontaneous pitched gun battle in the streets of some Iraqi city is an exclamation point shouting that the mission has not been accomplished. And nobody is really certain what that mission is anyway.
We know that our government really really wanted this war. Read
the Downing Street Memo. Read Richard Clarke's book 'Against All Enemies'. Listen to the testimony of any number of people correlating this fact.
Didn't anyone ever tell Bush "be careful what you wish for"
Well we know that there isn't going to be a draft, right? I mean aside from the backdoor one that is keeping the volunteers on duty well after their terms have expired. The President has said so. The Vice President has said so. Any number of Republican leaders have assured us in no uncertain terms there will be no draft.
And assuming you believe them... what does that mean for the all volunteer army already stretched to its limits and not meeting its recruitment numbers? Can we continue with operations under these circumstances? The Administration has made clear that pulling out of Iraq is not an option. The military command has made clear that to succeed our commitment in Iraq will stretch upwards of two years of occupation.
Read my lips "there will be no new taxes."
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