| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"Nomen Nescio" |
| Date: |
28 May 2005 11:00:05 AM |
| Object: |
Army's recruitment crisis deepens |
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.''
Krohn says this reality is accepted by recipients of his message. It also
meets agreement from active-duty officers I have contacted but who cannot
speak publicly. They ponder how an all-volunteer force can be maintained
when generals say there is no end in sight for U.S. troops facing an
increasingly sophisticated insurgency.
Krohn's message goes on to say ''the recruiting problem is an unintended
consequence of a prolonged war in Iraq, especially given the failure to find
WMD.'' He therefore calls for a ''national consensus to address the root
causes'' of the recruiting problem -- that is, the war in Iraq.
But the focus at the Defense Department has been on the excesses of
desperate recruiters, 37 of whom reflected their frustration in trying to
meet quotas by going AWOL over the last 2-1/2 years. The official response
was a 24-hour stand-down in recruiting to review proper procedures. It also
has been proposed that enlistments, now usually three to four years with a
minimum of 24 months, be cut to 15 months.
The recruiting guru Charles Moskos, professor emeritus at Northwestern
University who once suggested an 18-month tour, now says shorter enlistments
will not help. He proposes restoring the draft, but that is a political
non-starter. Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, who as a drafted soldier won
the Bronze Star in Korea, is one of the very few members of Congress who
advocate the draft. He does not hide his motive: A president would be
politically unable to take a conscript army into wars such as Iraq.
In contrast, Krohn is a lifelong Republican who actively supported George W.
Bush's presidential candidacy in 2000. He specified in his e-mail that ''I'm
not now blaming'' President Bush or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for
the situation. ''We have a problem that transcends politics,'' Krohn added.
The current Iraq war is America's first prolonged conflict fought entirely
with volunteers. It is a more professional and in every way a better army
than the conscript army of Korean War vintage in which I served, or the
conscript army that fought in Vietnam for seven years. The problem was
signaled when the 9/11 attack on America did not generate the enlistments
expected. Three and one-half years later, willingness to face personal peril
in Iraq has faded.
That means the problem goes beyond mechanics of recruiting and the details
of volunteer service and is found in the war itself. Paraphrasing Rumsfelds'
comment about going into battle with the Army we had, Charles Krohn said:
''The war we have now is not the war we started off with. It's much more
serious.''
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| User: "Cary Kittrell" |
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| Title: Re: Army's recruitment crisis deepens |
31 May 2005 12:05:08 PM |
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In article <162d7b40c6417e58aae13ec6739d2f93@dizum.com> Nomen Nescio <nobody@dizum.com> writes:
t!mail2news-x3!mail2news-x2!mail2news
Xref: news.arizona.edu misc.education:10878 alt.activism:25662 alt.education:23779
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?
During World War II, when Americans correctly preceived that
the Axis was a threat to this country, recruiters were swarmed
with young men willing to lie to get into the service.
Today, when Americans correctly preceive that Iraq was not and is
not a threat to this country, it's the recruiters who are
having to lie to get young people into the service.
-- cary
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