Recruitment Numbers Down Because...Risk To Guardsmen in Iraq Exaggerated!

[leftchick]

ooh boy, you know things are bad when they start talking like this...

Official: Risk to Guardsmen Exaggerated

~snip~

The casualty rate for Guardsmen is low compared with any previous armed conflict, said Lt. Gen. Steven Blum.

He said he recognizes that every death is a tragedy for that person's family. "But I lose, unfortunately, more people through private automobile accidents and motorcycle accidents over the same period of time," he added.

"It is dangerous, but it is — I shouldn't say it to this group but I'm going to — it is misrepresented, how dangerous it really is," Blum said during a breakfast with defense reporters.

Surveys of recruit-age Americans and their parents have shown that fear of being killed or wounded in Iraq is one of the major reasons that young people are choosing other careers after high school. The National Guard also has been squeezed by a slowdown in the number of active-duty soldiers switching to the Guard.



Lt. Gen. Steven Blum at a conference in Omaha, Neb. in a Thursday, May 19, 2005 photo. Blum, the general in charge of all National Guard forces said Tuesday, July 12, 2005, that the risk to National Guard soldiers of getting killed or wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan has been exaggerated, making recruiting more difficult. (AP Photo/Dave Weaver, File)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050713/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/national_guard_6

[alkaline9]

1. maybe it's the fact that...

...ALL these people that signed up for "one weekend a month, two weeks a year" are now suddenly finding themselves on multiple tours of duty in Iraq??? FOR AN OIL WAR!!!! Wake up Blum!

If these "recruit-age Americans and their parents" wanted to go to Iraq, they'd sign up for the Army.

[seabeyond]

2. talking to a marine family yesterday i a restaurant

the father was marines. their oldest marines, in iraq injured. recouping at fort hood, being sent out again in 6 months. another son in iraq, the syria border area. but he is safe, air conditioning (big point and relief for them) working with computers. their youngest son just enrolled. is a senior so he has a year before going over there. they are wanting this boy to hang out with my husband to learn computers, so he will be doing a "safe" job once he gets in

this is a family of fighters. and though they love the institution, they dont think safety has been exaggerated

[ET Awful]

3. What a load of bullshit.

First, this is the first war in which approximately 40% of the ground force is made up of Guard and Reserve troops.

They also account for a much larger proportion of casualties than any previous conflict.

They are being used for a purpose that far exceeds what they signed on for. While they are deployed overseas getting their nether regions blown off, their home states are suffering because they cannot use the Guard for the tasks they'd normally be used for (fighting wildfires anyone? How about hurricane cleanup and rescue?).

It's a bullshit argument, and it's about the fifth excuse they've come up with in the past 2 months to explain awa the fact that people aren't enlisting because they have this funny idea that breathing is good and they'd like to keep doing it.