6.14.2005
Military Numbers (IHT.com)
EDITORIAL
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
The New York Times
The U.S. Army's inability to recruit enough new soldiers to sustain its worldwide commitments is already serious, is becoming alarming and poses a real threat to the future of America's all-volunteer military.
The requisite political energies to address the problem aren't likely to be mobilized, however, if the army keeps massaging monthly numbers to conceal the extent of the shortfall. In May for example, the army originally hoped to send 8,050 new soldiers to training camps. Early in the month, the target was dropped significantly, to just 6,700. Even that lowered target, it turns out, was missed by a whopping 25 percent, with only about 5,000 new recruits entering boot camp.
Even if enlistments spurt temporarily during the summer, as the Pentagon now desperately hopes, it is hard to see how the army expects to train the 80,000 new troops it will need this year to maintain its authorized strength.
(More ... Military numbers - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune) ¶ 20:59
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
The New York Times
The U.S. Army's inability to recruit enough new soldiers to sustain its worldwide commitments is already serious, is becoming alarming and poses a real threat to the future of America's all-volunteer military.
The requisite political energies to address the problem aren't likely to be mobilized, however, if the army keeps massaging monthly numbers to conceal the extent of the shortfall. In May for example, the army originally hoped to send 8,050 new soldiers to training camps. Early in the month, the target was dropped significantly, to just 6,700. Even that lowered target, it turns out, was missed by a whopping 25 percent, with only about 5,000 new recruits entering boot camp.
Even if enlistments spurt temporarily during the summer, as the Pentagon now desperately hopes, it is hard to see how the army expects to train the 80,000 new troops it will need this year to maintain its authorized strength.
(More ... Military numbers - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune) ¶ 20:59
