http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=393291
All-Volunteer Army Shows Signs of Wear
by Lawrence J. Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American
Progress and senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information. He
was an assistant secretary of defense in charge of manpower in the
Reagan administration.
President Bush stated flatly last fall that he would not reinstitute
the draft under any circumstances.
In his State of the Union address this month, Bush praised the
volunteers of our military.
But the president and his Defense Department are pursuing policies
that threaten to destroy the all-volunteer military, particularly the
Army, and force a return to the draft.
The signs that the all-volunteer Army is breaking are increasing.
In the first four months of this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1,
2004, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve both missed their
recruiting targets, primarily because soldiers leaving active duty
refuse to join a reserve unit for fear of being sent back to Iraq.
________________________________________________________
From Reuters, 3/2/05:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7789418&src=rss/topNews
U.S. Marines, Amid Iraq War, Miss Recruiting Goals
Harry
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