<p>“Recruiting for the military is being reduced thanks to scare tactics from uber-liberal organizations that desire for the military not to have a presence anywhere, at all.”</p>
<p>tlaktan - You truly believe that the fall in recruitment is due to uber-liberal organizations? You honestly do not think that the Iraq war has anything to do with the falling recruitment numbers? This just defies common sense! Whether a person agrees or disagrees with the Iraq war, you have to at least recognize that the war affects recruitment. </p>
<p>"Several tactics of the military recruitment drives have been, of course, deemed unethical and indeed ARE unethical. Most of these recruiters, however, are people too – they have a job to accomplish . . . "</p>
<p>So you are saying that because the recruiters have a tough job, it’s understandable that they use tactics that are unethical? These are 18 and 19 year olds they’re dealing with. I personally want the people who volunteer, to be people who really want to enlist, people who understand what they’re getting into, and are proud to do it. I certainly don’t think the honest recruiters would appreciate people characterizing them as whining that their job is too tough for them to do it right.</p>
<p>And I’m not anti-military, even though I am the sole member of my family who has not served in uniform. My dad was an officer in WWII, my brother enlisted during Vietnam - and yes, my mother did wear combat boots.</p>
<p>Every student that doesn’t want to join the military needs my son’s Nana. Recruiters stepped up their calls to the house toward the end of each of the semesters of my son’s freshman year. I was avoiding the calls, but my mom was staying with my D when we went to pick S up at college less than two weeks ago. When the recruiter asked how my son was doing and if he was happy in college and planning to return, his Nana informed them that he was doing great, loved college and wouldn’t need to hear from them again. I’m thinking about unleashing her on the telemarketers that ignore the fact we’re on the “do not call list”.</p>
<p>re: family not being approached by recruiters - could it be because your boys are at private schools? We received calls when s. was graduating from public high school and right after s. finished a course at the local c.c. (they identified themselves as being from the c.c.). Could it be that they are selectively calling based on last known school? Well, now that I think of it, of course they are. If colleges market to certain zip codes, recruiters have probably figured out they get more response from calls directed to recent h.s. grads and c.c. attendees than if they’re calling the Andover alumni list (and we come full circle to the Bush family again). I don’t mean to be picking on the Bushes, I mean to pick on an entire class of privileged people. (Not casting aspersions at you, Jamimom, at all - just that recruiters might not be calling private school grads).</p>
<p>I think the best thing to do is to have your child tell them in no uncertain terms, “I am not interested.” It’s not right to be mean to the recruiter the first time they call. Subsequent calls, well that might be a different story. </p>
<p>And no, it isn’t right for schools to be releasing any information about our kids to anyone. But, it does show how desperate they are.</p>
<p>What distresses me is that we know most of us on these boards can handle the calls. As always, it’s the poorest among our kids who are so vulnerable…</p>
This quote leaves me almost speechless. First, as has been pointed out they are not at peace as much as you would think - American media tends to ignore the goings on of Europe. But, most importantly, why do you think they can get by with such little defense spending? Could it be that the US has been acting as their protector since WW II? We are finally getting smart and preparing to scale down our European troop deployments to the cry of “foul” by both European leaders and Democrats like John Kerry.</p>
<p>Reading some of the messages in this thread turn my stomach. It’s a shame that so many of the parents here haven’t taught their children to think for themselves or to question authority. Let’s keep the big bad military recruiters away from their innocent and apparently stupid children. Let’s keep ROTC out of colleges. Let’s sit with our heads in the sand and maybe the bad guys will disappear. Better yet, let’s make nice with them. Or even better, let’s let the French and the UN make nice with them. Maybe if some of you had watched - live from your town - as the World Trade Center collapsed on 9/11 and you knew some of your neighbors and good friends were dying with it, then you’d have a different attitude. Unfortunately it seems your hate for Bush overwhelms most of you. Here’s an article by David Gelernter, a computer scientist at Yale, that might interest some of the more open-minded here.
<a href=“http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=4580[/url]”>http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=4580</a></p>
<p>What is wrong with allowing miltary recruiters to come and have a table at the same time that colleges and other groups are at the school?
No chasing students down the hallway- no getting minors to sign in advance telling them they can change their mind, then when they do telling them that they will be arrested…
As I have told the hawks in our community- I am all for mandatory community service for high school graduates & I am all for continued drivers licensing being tied to a high school diploma.
I suggest that there would be no exemptions- students from Lakeside who currently are not targeted, would be required to do as much community service as students from Garfield who are targeted by the military.
We would need to expand Americorps and similar programs as Bush promised to do, instead of cutting them to oversee the volunteers. I would recommend that individuals who would remain in the states at a relatively “safe” occupation, like teaching in D.C. would volunteer for two years and high school graduates who opt for military training would only be liable for one. However, if someone registers for 5 years, there is no keeping them for 7 unless they want to. None of this stop loss baloney to keep servicemen who have already served from exiting the military.
I think parents and educators recognize that every dollar spent on war as another dollar not spent on education.
…
When are we going to get our priorities straight?</p>
The author of this must not pay attention to the news. Does he/she not see the price that the Iraqi soldiers and police are paying in terms of their lives? This is the same kind of sentiment (where the only lives that count are American lives) that allows the left to pat themselves on the back for getting us out of Vietnam … who cares about the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese who were executed after we abandoned them?</p>
<p>I haven’t read all the posts…but as someone who has been out on the recruiting trail, at any of the college fairs or college night programs I saw, I never saw any of the military recruiters using “slimy tatics” at all. They had a table and brochures displayed just like all the other colleges or vo-tech or trade type programs and only spoke with the students who came to their table.</p>
<p>Now as for telephone calls…well that’s annoying from anyone if you are not interested in what they are offering! Just state firmly & without a debate, that you (or S or D) are not interested in the military calling your household anymore.</p>
<p>A Republican Senator is asking for an investigation in to the recruitment problems. One recruiter in Texas threatened a student with arrest!! If he didn’t show up to a recruitment station. </p>
<p>I was in hs in NYC on 9/11. I was encouraged that bush came to visit the WTC after the attack but I grew more and more disappointed and eventually disgusted when he used this tragedy for political purposes and for starting a war against an unrelated party.</p>
<p>military recruiters should be sent packing. This is almost like Britian in the 18th century when the navy forcibly boarded people.
The men in the army are admirable, the army administration and leadership is UTTERY DESPICABLE.</p>
<p>Not to get political, but I can’t help it, I thought we had won the war already…isn’t that what we were told? Isn’t that what was made such a big deal of? Why would anyone want to join something that is obviously a mess? </p>
<p>Um, we don’t know when you will go home. wait, you have to go back again, um, so you go bankrupt while over there, oh well, um, yep, we will send husband and wives there at the same time, um, we aren’t going to equip you well, um, yeah, they love us there running their country so well, we can’t imagine why they are shooting at us, so SIGN UP NOW!!! We promise you will be treated reall well</p>
<p>The left and the media (or is that redundant?) have been successful in painting the picture that you express thus influencing new recruits. However, those who are actually there and doing the work and shedding the blood, are seeing its benefits in a real sense that those who only watch the evening news never catch a glimpse of.</p>