Originally posted by: DonVito
	
	
		
		
			Originally posted by: Crimson
Please provide links to articles which show we are not meeting our recruiting and retention needs in the military.  Everything I have read have said just the opposite.. but, I am sure you can prove me wrong.
		
		
	 
The National Guard 
missed its recruiting goals for the year, and the AD and Reserve prospects of meeting next year's goals 
look soft (they satisfied their FY04 goals, largely on the strength of delayed enlistees, which have dropped markedly going into FY05).  This is part of the reason the Army has increased enlistment bonuses this year.  Meanwhile, thousands of soldiers are affected by stop-loss, so if and when they're permitted to leave, the available force will just shrink.
I honestly think military service would be good for you, and offer a real chance to serve your country.  Why don't you do it, if you're such an ardent supporter of the war?
		
 
		
	 
Do you support raising taxes to cut the deficit?  Why don't you pay more in taxes than you owe then to cut the deficit?  After all, if you support raises MY taxes, why don't you VOLUNTARILY do it?  Can you support cutting the deficit without paying extra in taxes?  Of course, but using your logic you cannot support the war without being in the military.
Have you or anyone in your family ever needed to assistance of a police officer or firefighter?  Just curious, can you expect a police officer to defend your family from a man pointing a gun at you without joining the police force?  Can you expect a firefighter to run into your burning house after your children without being a firefighter?
By your logic, if I support the police raids on drug houses, I should have to join the police force..   After all, I am expecting that the police officers put themselves in harms way to do something that I am unable or unwilling to do.. So, by your twisted logic, if I am not a police officer I cannot support making the police enforce the laws of this country?
Your logic makes absolutely NO sense.. And it proves to me what a dangerous person you are.  This entire country is built on the fact that people are willing to volunteer to do jobs like police, fire, military, so that others who are unable or unwilling to do it themselves are protected.  If you followed your belief, people not in those professions would have no right to expect a police officer to protect them from an armed intruder.  That is ABSOLUTELY and HORRIBLY wrong.  I think you believe that you serving in the military as a lawyer somehow gives you more rights as an American than the guy cleaning the bathroom at the local Denny's.. and it doesn't.. 
Let me ask you this, does the President of the United States, as a civilian, have the right to send the military into war?  Some Presidents, like Clinton, were NEVER in the military.  Using your logic, Clinton should have never sent troops into any conflict because he was not, and had never been in the military?  PLEASE explain that extremely flawed logic you have.  Our government is specifically built on civilian control of the military..
Honestly, I think you may well be served LEAVING the military if thats the attitude you have.
Now, concerning recruitment.. Your statistics only seem to apply to the national guard.  Are you making the claim that the Marines/Navy, Army, and Air Force are also NOT meeting their recruiting needs?  Also, as that article points out, the guard is having more trouble because its not getting the normal flow of people who would join after leaving active duty.  So, showing an article that the national guard is going to miss its goal of 56000 by 5000 people does not seem to be the slam dunk that you portray it to be that the military is not meeting its goals as a whole..  
So, do you have anything which states that the other branches of the military are also not meeting their goals?  Because I can't find any.  I'm not saying its not true, but you are the one making the claim, and everything I have heard recently says they ARE meeting their goals.  You need to prove your accusation.