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13 December 2004

Shades of our last years in Vietnam

America's most decorated living soldier sounds off on the growing need for a military draft.
By the end of this recruiting year, the Regular Army, Reserves and Guard could fall short more than 50 percent of its projected requirement, or about 60,000 new soldiers. And according to many recruiters, quality recruits are giving way to mental midgets who have a hard time telling their left foot from their right.

“The bottom line is that Recruiting Command is in trouble,” says another recruiter with almost 30 years of service. “The Army has re-instituted ‘stop loss,’ which is basically a backdoor draft. They’re stopping people from retiring or completing their enlistment and leaving the Army. They do this fairly often, mostly in August and September, depending upon how far behind they believe they’ll be at the end of September.

Maybe the U.S. can stem the need to enlist Americans into overseas imperialistic campaigns in lieu of immigrants eager to earn American citizenship by proving their mettle on the battlefield.

Or perhaps we can depend on robot grunts to perform the prescribed killings. Less moral conflict with machines wreaking death and destruction on those less fortunate to be placed in the path.