Young Blacks, Females Saying No to Army

[LVT]

Young Blacks, Females Saying No to Army
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

Tuesday, March 8, 2005


(03-08) 10:55 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --


To the daily drumbeat of casualty reports from Iraq, young blacks and women are marching away from offers to join the Army.


These trends, combined with the negative effects of the Army's image as a last-resort career choice for what one study called the "average Joe," suggests the military's largest service may be entering a prolonged recruiting slump at a time when it is trying to expand its ranks.


The share of blacks in the Army's recruiting classes has plummeted by about one-third over the past five years. It has continued slipping this year despite more generous enlistment bonuses offered to all prospective recruits and an increase in the number of recruiters.


"More African-Americans identify having to fight for a cause they don't support as a barrier to military service," concluded an August 2004 study for the Army. It also said attitudes toward the Army among all groups of American youth have grown more negative in recent years.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/03/08/national/w105503S40.DTL

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[patrice]

2. Congratulations on your Courage!

Our country has always said it respects those who stand on "principle" (value), but it appears lately only if you AGREE with them, otherwise you are a traitor.

Courage is very important these days.

To refuse to make a living off of others dying is also very Christian of these women.

[Larkspur]

3. Well, if the Bush twins won't join the Army and fight for Daddy's war,

why should anyone else?

[Catherine Vincent]

4. Left f'ing On!

[TlalocW]

5. Good

I think the military really uses some shady practices when it tries to recruit Blacks in economically-depressed areas by making the military look like the only way out of the hood. Hopefully, along with this refusal to join based on fighting for a cause they don't support will also help them realize and find there indeed are other options out there for them.

TlalocW

[beyurslf]

6. Good for them! Some one is paying attention

[patrice]

7. The whole "It's okay for some un-named others to die, just as long as I

don't die or suffer, so it's okay for me to make a living off of it" attitude is the opposite of REAL Pro-Life. The result of this thinking is that Human Blood becomes traded on the world markets relative to Oil Futures, becaus that's what Cheney's PNAC-ian Nightmare IS! The commoditization of any human blood is the opposite of what REAL Pro-Life would be about.

"Pro-Life", as we know it, is completely discredited by this war - unitl they become anti-War, that is. They are also discredited by their persecution of other sexual orientations.

[tgnyc]

8. more on this at

www.intelligencesquad.com/id111.html