Playing Politics with Recruiting Numbers
The New York Times recently ran a headline about the US Army missing its June recruiting goal. As you would expect the article begins with all the usual doom and gloom and how this is a sign that the US public no longer supports the Army because of casualties in Iraq. Now this is what the article won’t tell you, for the fiscal year the US Army’s current enlistment total is at 101%. Here is a complete breakdown of 2007 recruiting numbers:
07 Recruiting Statistics:
Component Accessions Goal Percentage
Army 51,889 51,150 101%
Navy 25,176 25,101 100%
Marines 21,866 19,629 111%
Air Force 20,211 20,211 100%
Notice the two branches of the military that are conducting direct combat operations, the Army and the Marines are the only branches with recruiting totals that are above their maximum percentage, especially the Marine Corps. So if people are discouraged from joining the military due to the fear of casualties as the New York Times alleges, than how do you explain the vast majority of new recruits are overwhelmingly joining the two branches that you are mostly likely to get wounded and not the Air Force and the Navy?
At least the NY Times mentioned this fact towards the very end of their article, but the US Army is in the midst of a massive force expansion of 33,000 soldiers, which means this year they have to recruit a higher total of numbers compared to in the past and yet both the Army and Marines Corps are recruiting over the projected number.
To add to this fudging of facts TIME magazine has published an article that once again raises fears about installing a draft to make up for the lack of recruits which doesn’t exist except in the minds of dishonest reporters. The dishonest reporting of military recruiting is just another prime example of politicization of the military by the media fudging recruiting numbers to confirm a thesis they want the reader to believe is happening instead of actually reporting what is happening.
