They Won't Go

[Guest guest]

" Zepp " <zepp

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 08:07:59 -0700

[Zepps_News] #Herbert: They Won't Go - New York Times

 

 

 

<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/13/opinion/13herbert.html?hp= & adxnnl=1 & adxnnlx=1\

118675250-m9LNLXGvXE3YS9iCW0vXew>

 

They Won't Go

 

By BOB HERBERT

Published: June 13, 2005

 

George W. Bush is in no danger of being ranked among the nation's

pre-eminent commanders in chief. Not only has he been unable thus far to

win the war in Iraq, but on his watch significant sectors of the proud

U.S. military have been rapidly deteriorating.

 

The Army reported on Friday that it had fallen short of its recruitment

goals for a fourth consecutive month. The Marines managed to meet their

recruitment target for May, but that was their first successful month

this year.

 

Scrambling to fill its ranks, the Army is signing up more high school

dropouts and lower-scoring applicants.

 

With the war in Iraq going badly and allegations of abuse by military

personnel widespread, young men and women are increasingly deciding that

there's no upside to a career choice in which the most important skills

might be ducking bullets and dodging roadside bombs.

 

The primary reason the U.S. went to an all-volunteer military in 1973

was to ensure that those who did not want to fight wouldn't have to.

That option is now being overwhelmingly exercised, discretion being the

clear choice over valor. Young people and their parents alike are

turning their backs on the military in droves.

 

The Army is so desperate for even lukewarm bodies that it is reluctant

to release even problem soldiers, troops who are seriously out of shape,

or pregnant, or abusing alcohol or drugs. And it is lowering standards

for admission to the junior officer ranks. For example, minor criminal

offenses that previously would have been prohibitive can now be

overlooked.

 

At the same time Army recruiters have been chasing high school kids with

such reckless abandon that a backlash is developing among parents who,

in many cases, want the recruiters kept out of their children's schools.

 

" To the extent that we think students are threatened by recruiters, it's

our job to intervene, " said Amy Hagopian, a co-chair of the

Parent-Teacher-Student Association at Garfield High School in Seattle.

Ms. Hagopian, who has an 18-year-old son, complained that recruiters too

often put the hard sell on impressionable high school youngsters without

informing them of the potential dangers of a life in the military.

 

Recruiters with the gift of gab go into the schools with a glamorous

pitch, bags full of goodies for the kids (T-shirts, donuts, key chains)

and a litany of promises they often can't keep. The kids don't hear much

about their chances of being maimed or killed, or the trauma that often

results from killing someone else.

 

(A soldier's job is to kill. I can still hear the drill sergeants in

basic training screaming at us decades ago: " What are you? What are

you? " And we'd scream back: " Killers! Killers! " And the sergeants would

say, " What is your purpose? " And we would shout: " To kill! To kill! " )

 

The Army, frantically searching for solutions, is offering enlistments

as short as 15 months and considering bonuses worth up to $40,000. But

it may be facing a problem too difficult for any amount of money to

overcome. Americans are catching on to the hideousness and apparent

futility of the war in Iraq. Five marines were killed in a single bomb

attack in western Iraq on Thursday. On Friday, a front-page Washington

Post headline described the effort to rebuild the Iraqi military as

" Mission Improbable. "

 

A Washington Post-ABC News poll last week found that nearly

three-quarters of Americans believe the number of casualties in Iraq is

unacceptable, and 60 percent believe the war was not worth fighting.

 

There's something frankly embarrassing about a government offering

trinkets to children to persuade them to go off and fight - and perhaps

die - in a war that their nation should never have started in the first

place. It's highly questionable whether most high school kids are

equipped to make an informed decision about joining the military, which

is exactly why they're targeted. The additional knowledge and maturity

gained in the first few years after high school make it easier for a

young man or woman to make a wiser, more meaningful choice, pro or con.

 

The parents of the kids being sought by recruiters to fight this

unpopular war are creating a highly vocal and potentially very effective

antiwar movement. In effect, they're saying to their own children: hell

no, you won't go.

--