Despite liberals who continue to argue that our troops are demoralized in Iraq, the figures tell a different story. As Glenn Reynolds reports, the Army not only made its re-enlistment quota, it did better than expected. Another reader notes that Officer Candidate School enlistments are also filled.
It looks like those masses of disenchanted soldiers line is yet another example of a problem with the media’s worldview rather than a problem in the real world.
You don’t suppose that the robust enlistment numbers have something to do with the piss-poor performance of the economy and the fact that there are millions fewer jobs available for young adults than three years ago? Perhaps this alleged upsurge in the economy won’t be such a good thing for the Bush administration after all.
I’d be more interested in a comparison of enlistment across the years, not enlistment vs. their expectations. After all you could improve those numbers by simply lowering your expectations.
C’mon, Jay. You wouldn’t want to be mesleading, right? Is enlistment up or down from last year? Year before?
Enlistment is up from last year, although certainly the economy plays a part in that increase.
And once again, Jay misses a pertinent fact in his quest to insult half the country:
“Disenchanted soldiers” would not be the ones that have yet to join the service and are enlisting now. The ones I and others are concerned with are the soldiers who have spent years and years in service to our country who are now adament that they will not RE-enlist. Re-enlisment is a far more important number to focus on if you want to argue that our soldiers are still avoiding disenchantment and/or dismemberment.
I completely agree, which is why I linked to the article pointing out that the Army exceeded it’s reenlistment quota this year.
Uh, did you READ the article, specifically where it says the Army has dropped its goal twice this year and has not made the initial goal of 57,000?
So the fact that quotas were reduced doesn’t relate to the fact that Rumsfeld has had a longstanding interest in cutting the size of the military to create smaller, more specialized units? It’s actually related to the fac tthat they think things are going so well in Iraq that we need to reduce total troop strength there? I’m with John McCain on this one.
And it appears that you now agree with me and Sen. McCain! More troops is a good thing. the only point we seem to be differing on in that regard is that I’d ratehr they not be American troops in Iraq.
So, Senator McCain says we need more forces in Iraq, and you agree. I say we need more forces than we’re seeing re-enlist, and you post a quote from a guy who’s talking about there being too MANY soldiers already. Find the logic in that one.