Novak: Army's recruitment crisis deepens (in a death spiral)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak26.html

Retired Army Lt. Col. Charles Krohn got himself in trouble with his superiors as a Pentagon civilian public affairs official during the first 3-1/2 years of the Bush administration by telling the truth. He is still at it in private life. He says not to blame the military recruiters for the current recruiting ''scandal.'' Blame the war.

''Army recruiting is in a death spiral, through no fault of the Army,'' Krohn told me. Always defending uniformed personnel, he resents hard-pressed recruiters being attacked for offering unauthorized benefits to make quotas. In a recent e-mail sent to friends (mostly retired military), Krohn complained that the ''Army is having to compensate for a problem of national scope.''

The Army's dilemma is maintaining an all-volunteer service when volunteering means going in harm's way in Iraq. The dilemma extends to national policy. How can the United States maintain its global credibility against the Islamists, if military ranks cannot be filled by volunteers and there is no public will for a draft?

Krohn's e-mail describes the problem: ''Consider the implications of being unable to find sufficient volunteers, as seen by our adversaries. Has the United States lost its will to survive? What's happened to the Great Satan when so few are willing to fight to defend the country? Surely bin Laden et al are making this argument, telling supporters victory is just around the corner if they are a bit more patient. And if they're successful, the energy sources in the Mideast may be within their grasp.''

[Cha]

1. Maybe they heard about the

particular lies to go to this war on Iraq..maybe they heard about no armor protection..and just maybe they heard about the cover-up of the "friendly fire" that killed Pat Tillman!

[HockeyMom]

3. Bringing back memories

of the 60s when students were protesting Nam War and burning their draft cards. Back then it was mostly college campuses. Now, it has filtered down to High Schools with our "volunteer" military and Leave No CHILD Unrecruited Law.

Good to see the youth of this country taking a stand.

[Cha]

8. Yes it is!

They can't get the recruits to go get maimed and killed in their lousy blood for oil scheme, so what's next?..the draft?

[harlinchi]

2. Aren't the energy sources of the Middle East in the grasp of...

those sources' countries of origin? Shouldn't they be? In whose grasp should they be, ours?


And if they're successful, the energy sources in the Mideast may be within their grasp.''


If this is the issue, shouldn't the administration just say it?

Suppose the president just came out and said, "Well folks, you've been correct for some time! Peak Oil is very real. That's why we've been doing the objectionable things we've done lately. If we don't, the US gets reamed by the lack of oil. Iraq wasn't really bad; it was just the easiest situation to manipulate for their oil. Venezuela isn't bad. They simply have OUR oil!"

What would YOUR response be?

[rodeodance]

5. simple--bush should be nicer to other countries and we will not

have to be the leader

The Army's dilemma is maintaining an all-volunteer service when volunteering means going in harm's way in Iraq. The dilemma extends to national policy. How can the United States maintain its global credibility against the Islamists, if military ranks cannot be filled by volunteers and there is no public will for a draft?

[RamboLiberal]

7. What Bush needs to come out and say

is all you voters with Bush/Cheney 04 stickers on your big-ass SUV's need to get your butts or your kids butts down to the recruiting office and join my war for oil!

Otherwise get in line for a Prius with the latte drinking, birkenstock wearing liberals. :evilgrin:

[geckosfeet]

11. get off your ass and develop alternative nrg programs NOW !

[Old and In the Way]

12. How much oil would 300BB buy?

We should play by the rules like we expect every other civilized country to play by. They've miscalculated....again. They rolled the dice and busted the house.

Of course, this is the end game which didn't have to be. Jimmy Carter was right in 79 when he promoted alternative energy/renewable/conservation. He elevated the Deptartment of Energy to a cabinet level post. We could have been energy independent today if these treasonous bastards hadn't sold us out.

Bush/Reagan (make no mistake it was Bush) energy policies shitcanned all of that stuff and kept us on Big Oil ME dependence. He and his cronies made lots of $ selling out our national security. His Dimson is presiding over "Evening in America".

It was Republican policies planted 35 years ago whose bitter fruit is being harvested today.

[phantom power]

15. About 6.6 billion barrels, at $50 per barrel

I believe we use about 9 million barrels a day, which works out to almost exactly a 2 year supply.

[Old and In the Way]

31. I think it was around $25bbl before the war started.

One thing the war has done is keep the Iraqi oil pretty much off the market. The House of Saud appreciates Bush's help in maximizing their oil revenue.

[phantom power]

37. I doubt we'll ever see oil that cheap again.

Rising demand from China and India, and flattening production aren't going to go away regardless of what happens in Iraq.

[Old and In the Way]

38. Agreed....but our actions in Iraq have assured Saudi Arabia of

optimal pricing of their contracts. Thing is, we'd have paid the market price anyway....but we wouldn't have emptied the Treasury and spilled American blood to support Exxon's bottom line. They are making record profits...why aren't they footing the bill?

[roseBudd]

35. Unfortunately I believe half of Americans would say yes to bombing China's

factories and roads if it was presented as preventing China from using "our oil"

My response would be "no thanks, I live 5 minutes from work and purposely limit driving so as to have a minimal impact on the environment. I'll walk or take a bus."

[noamnety]

4. Even if recruitment stops completely

They can never wipe us out - we are protected by a shield of yellow magnetic ribbons.

Wouldn't it be cool, though, if the anti-American Islamist insurgents (not sure what to call them) showed their support of bin laden by putting stickers on their cars, instead of fighting?

[Cha]

9. Amazing, huh?

Where are all those republicans that voted(?) for bushtoid? Why aren't they standing in line at the local recruit office???

Check out the blue ribbon I'm going to put on my car when it gets here.
http://www.supportourribbons.com/maker/make_ribbon.php?id=7890

[InternalDialogue]

6. Isn't it ironic?

Military recruitment is providing a perfect model for what the far right would like to do with myriad social programs.

[oneold1-4u]

10. In Harms Way!

With little to no compensation, no rewards, no veteran benefits, no return to civil jobs, no help not to die. It once was "only the brave". Today it is only for the most deficient citizens who have less than nothing!

[warrens]

13. That's alright, if Al Qaeda messes with us again...

We'll attack Lithuania. Or Gabon. Or maybe Belize. Who knows what Commander Cuckoobananas will do next time? He's one EDGY dude.

[Wright Patman]

14. I think the failure to find WMDs

after there was so much emphasis beforehand that they are EVERYWHERE--north, south, east and west--let anyone with a pulse know that the soldiers were lied into that war.

And a lot of it is just a well-founded fear of coming back from there with missing limbs, if not in a "transfer tube."

I wish I could believe that all these unwilling young people had actually examined 9-11 and realized the entire 'global war on terror' against Al CIAda is based on a MIHOP 'Reichstag fire" event and has been following a PNAC script written as long ago as 1998, but I don't think there are all that many who know that particular truth in that age group.

[kenny blankenship]

16. Imagine how bad recruitment would be if our country had prosperity

...and now you know why Chimpboy doesn't give a damn about improving the economy.

Bush Foreign policy
Bush Economic Policy
Bush Education Policy

...and needless to say, it's also the Bush Energy Policy as well (but more postings of the same photo would start to piss people off)

[xray s]

17. Can you imagine what they would be saying if...

...a Democratic president screwed up the military as bad as Bush has?

The Republicans would be looking for any way possible to impeach them.

[Barrett808]

18. Army's recruitment crisis deepens (Novakula, "death spiral")

Army's recruitment crisis deepens
May 26, 2005
BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Retired Army Lt. Col. Charles Krohn got himself in trouble with his superiors as a Pentagon civilian public affairs official during the first 3-1/2 years of the Bush administration by telling the truth. He is still at it in private life. He says not to blame the military recruiters for the current recruiting ''scandal.'' Blame the war.

''Army recruiting is in a death spiral, through no fault of the Army,'' Krohn told me. Always defending uniformed personnel, he resents hard-pressed recruiters being attacked for offering unauthorized benefits to make quotas. In a recent e-mail sent to friends (mostly retired military), Krohn complained that the ''Army is having to compensate for a problem of national scope.''

The Army's dilemma is maintaining an all-volunteer service when volunteering means going in harm's way in Iraq. The dilemma extends to national policy. How can the United States maintain its global credibility against the Islamists, if military ranks cannot be filled by volunteers and there is no public will for a draft?

Krohn's e-mail describes the problem: ''Consider the implications of being unable to find sufficient volunteers, as seen by our adversaries. Has the United States lost its will to survive? What's happened to the Great Satan when so few are willing to fight to defend the country? Surely bin Laden et al are making this argument, telling supporters victory is just around the corner if they are a bit more patient. And if they're successful, the energy sources in the Mideast may be within their grasp.''

(more)

http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak26.html

[Shoeempress]

19. I'm cold, do I feel a draft?

[SnowGoose]

20. people aren't unwilling to "fight to defend the country",

people are unwilling to go occupy a country that doesn't want us and was never a threat in the first place.

Big difference.

[mark11727]

21. I'm sick of the "defending your country" line of crap...

...when one of them comes over HERE, then yeah, I'll take a shot at 'em.

But I'm not invading just any any place because we want to take over their resources (under the guise of "spreading freedom" of course).

[SnowGoose]

25. Gotta fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here

I'm pretty sure this little one was going to swim over here and blow something up. Yea *of course* if there was someone invading my country, I'd be right there with a sawed-off 10 gauge.

But this? It's a fucking abomination, and those "god and country" types better pray they're wrong about heaven and hell, because when I pick up a bible, it always seems to fall open to the place where Jesus says - if you've done it to the least of these my brethren, you've done it to me!



May whatever gods exist have mercy on us.

[Hand]

36. Next time someone sez that...

The comeback is "Maybe we could WIN over here."

[mike_c]

28. this needs to be repeated over and over....

No one in their right mind is willing to enlist and risk death in a war whose purpose is anything BUT defending America. To even discuss the war against Iraq in those terms is an affront to truth. The war against Iraq is a war of aggression-- it's the sort of war that patriotic Americans once condemned in no uncertain terms. That they are not signing up in droves to die in Iraq is hardly surprising. Where is the patriotism in murdering civilians, or fighting a partisan guerilla force that's defending it's homeland against a foreign occupier? Where is the patriotism in joining the self-serving global war politics of neo-conservatives and corporatists embarked on a mission that ultimately reduces to rape and plunder? That's not patriotism, it's the strong arm of fascism.

[mark11727]

33. "Catch-22"

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

[K8-EEE]

22. I Say, Barb & Jenna Should Set An Example...

Certainly they can inspire all their fellow GOP twenty-somethings to sign up. It's not like they're WORKING or anything.

[yorkiemommie1]

26. they don't want to bother their 'beautiful minds'

w/ thoughts of war. just like their granny.

what ARE they doing nowadays anyway? and how can * tout his war and willingly send other people's boys and girls off to war when we all know he has two healthy kids who could go enlist? how does he square his bravado w/ his personal performance?

oh. right. he doesn't have to. :sarcasm:

[K8-EEE]

30. Remember Their Impressive Election Season "Jobs?"

I think one of them was supposed to go to Africa to work in an AIDS clinic or something and the other was supposed to teach in Harrlem, yeah RIGHT.

Apparently they decided to just party instead.

[RamboLiberal]

23. Dupe to this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x127891

[tabasco]

24. This demonstrates the utter cowardice of Bush voters.

They voted for war so they could watch it on tv and feel proud to be Americans. They thought it was ok if other people went and fought a war on bullshit evidence. Now it is their turn to stand up and join up, but they are yellow, just like their chickenhawk leaders. I hold these people in utter contempt.

[JohnyCanuck]

27. That pitter patter sound you hear outside the window

is the sound of the freepers running to the recruiting office to put their ass on the lign and sign up so they can go shoot themselves some ragheads for the Dear Leader.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. Quite frankly I cannot wait to help my freeper neighboors pack

for basic

;-)

A draft will be the only way thehm chickenshit yellow backs, be all you can be, (from teh safety of my couch) pieces of dreg will pay for what they have done.

[Journeyman]

32. If it weren't for the fact that my nephew and my daughters' friends. . .

will also be subject to the coming draft, I'd be in full agreement with you, nb. But in the sadness of my loss when my young men get swept up in this madness, like you I'll vent my anger at those who supported it yet felt no obligation to participate -- indeed, believed that others could do their evil in their stead.

[Bridget Burke]

34. As usual, LA Cucaracha has something to say....

Today's strip is from United Comics; "The Recruitment Crisis" has been the theme of the last few strips.

Here's the official La Cucaracha site: http://www.lacucaracha.com/

[Vitruvius]

39. Nobody volunteers to risk their lives to steal oil for Halliburton,

Cheney, Bu$h & Co. My relatives & friends who went career military went in to defend our country -- which is the ONLY thing worth risking your life to defend.


P.S: If grabbing other peoples' oil is so important to Bu$h, let him & his family grab some guns and go steal it themselves.

As for me, I'd rather pay $10 a gallon for gas than risk the life of one American soldier in Iraq.

[teryang]

40. Waging war for dummies

''The war we have now is not the war we started off with. It's much more serious.''

Translation: I want the enemy to fight the war the way I want to fight. I forgot about Vietnam. I had too little insight to anticipate a guerilla conflict.

This is spite of Saddam's revelations that his regime studied the Vietnam conflict, and trained and organized large numbers of guerilla fighters in unconventional warfare. This was as plain as day before the invasion to any trained observer.

The really surprising thing thus far is the surprisingly low numbers of reported American casualties. The defensive posture of American forces is apparently successful in this one respect only but does nothing to re-establish security in Iraq as the manpower present there is totally inadequate. The latter reality was predicted by US Army leadership before the war and for that reason was decapitated in favor of lackeys and sychophants.

Righteousness is a very important factor in warfare and the will to fight. A war procured through fraud, and executed pre-emptively has little to justify it in the mind of those asked to possibly sacrifice their lives or those of their loved ones. Feigned righteousness is no substitute for the real thing when facing life or death issues. Those faced with the prospect of a small but consistently applied casualty rate for an indefinite period still must answer the same personal cost-benefit analysis. It just doesn't add up.