AP: Military Hits Recruiting Goals Despite ‘Slow Economy,’ and ‘Unpopular War’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Don’t you just love the MSM? They can’t even report good news without interjecting their doom and gloom, agenda driven verbiage into any report. This time it is the Associated Press with the good news that the Marines and the rest of America’s armed forces have reached their recruiting goals. In fact, many branches of the service exceeded them. All good news, right? Well, naturally the AP had to throw some cold water on the good tidings. You see, according to the AP the Marines fulfilled their recruiting goals because of a “slow economy” and despite Iraq being an “unpopular war.” They just can’t let it go, can they?

After giving us the details that the Marines surpassed their recruiting goals the AP had to remind us that U.S. forces were “stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan” and that those joining the service are doing so because — and here is that old canard again — “other job possibilities” are limited for them.

Recruiting is easier in a slow economy, which limits other job possibilities that are available. But officials also noted that the Army and Marines have added recruiters as well as bonuses and other special benefits to attract more recruits in the midst of the unpopular war in Iraq.

How “unpopular” can it be if the services are finding it so easy to fulfill their recruiting goals, anyway? And how many times do we have to prove the they-can’t-get-a-job claim made against our recruits is not true?

As Major Garrett of Fox News said on an episode of Special Report a while back:

Now what about the charge that an all volunteer force is poorer, less educated, and more minority? Well a Heritage Foundation study last year, analyzing census data on income, race, region and education, found there that military recruits before and after 9/11 were more middle class than poor, more rural than urban, better educated than the general public, and that whites joined in higher proportions to the general population than all minority groups.

Fortunately, and to their credit, the AP does show that the Marines realized 142 percent of the number of recruits they were looking for. But that isn’t the whole story. If you want a more detailed report, the DOD has a page up on it, too. There you’ll see that the Army got 101% of their desired numbers and the Navy and Air Force 100%. You’ll also see that the Army Nat’l Guard got 112% of their goal, the Army Reserve got 120%, the Navy Reserve and the Air Force Reserve both got 100% and the Air Nat’l Guard got 130% of the needed numbers.

But, this success can only be because the economy is soooo bad as far as the MSM are concerned, even though this is such an “unpopular war.” You can just sense they are reporting this good news through clenched teeth, can’t you?

Nope, they just can’t let go of a favorite meme even when proven wrong and good news certainly cannot stand alone.

(Photo credit: usmilitarystuff.com)

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston