Army Has Record Low Level of Recruits

Why would young people want to join a military in where they asked to die for that psychopath in the White House, fighting a war without end. This is a very dangerous situation since if another war should break out (i.e.,Iran). We wouldn't have enough troops to defend ourselves:

The Army began its recruiting year Oct. 1 with fewer signed up for basic training than in any year since it became an all-volunteer service in 1973, a top general said Wednesday.

[...]Achieving the Army's recruiting goals—a challenge in the best of times—is not only more difficult now but also of more consequence. That is because the Army has decided that it must grow its active-duty force by several thousand soldiers a year in order to relieve strain on war-weary troops.

This situation is so bad that the administration is forcing diplomats to serve in Iraq:

US State Department diplomats have criticized new rules that will force some to work in Iraq against their will or risk dismissal, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

Their complaints were voiced at a meeting of hundreds of diplomats and senior officials to hear Harry Thomas, the department's director of human resources, describe the new policy.

Service in Baghdad was "a potential death sentence," said a man who identified himself as a 46-year Foreign Service veteran, the Post reported.

"Any other embassy in the world would be closed by now," he said to sustained applause, the Post reported, citing an audiotape of the meeting.

[...]Only 12 percent of officers believe that Rice "is fighting for them," said John Naland, who heads the American Foreign Service Association, the union representing the diplomats, according to the Post.

Diplomats have not been forced to serve abroad against their will since the Vietnam war era.

Obviously the Bushies can't turn to mercenaries anymore to make up for the shortage in Iraq:

The Iraqi cabinet approved draft legislation Tuesday that would repeal a law granting immunity to foreign security firms working in Iraq.

The draft, which still requires the approval of parliament, is part of the Iraqi government's response to a shooting last month involving guards from Blackwater Worldwide, a North Carolina-based private security firm, that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead and 27 wounded.

[...]The measure would repeal a law known as Order 17 that was issued by L. Paul Bremer, who led the U.S. occupation in Iraq until June 2004. The move by the Iraqi cabinet follows reports this week that Blackwater guards were granted partial immunity during a State Department investigation into the Sept. 16 incident.

At this pace the neocons will get us involved in more wars, meaning more deaths for less troops. The biggest problem is that these conflicts are too complicated and senseless for our bravest to understand. Who is the enemy? It doesn't make sense. I don't think Bush understands the mess that he's created, or at least he can't justify it:

The U.S. acknowledged Wednesday it has undertaken military moves against Kurdish rebels in Iraq after asserting for weeks that their strikes in Turkey were a diplomatic matter.

Pentagon officials are now starting to say publicly that the U.S. is flying manned spy planes over the border area, providing Turkey with more intelligence information, and that there are standing orders for American forces to capture rebels they find.