They Want You

"They want you! They want you!
They want you as a new recruit!"

That’s how the chanted line from the Village People’s hit "In the Navy" goes, and it’s true. They do, except that "they" are Democratic members of Congress, and it’s the Army they want you — and anyone else who volunteers — for.

A team of Senate and House Democrats today are planning to introduce legislation today aimed at significantly increasing size of the U.S. Army.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services (SASC) airland subcommittee, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), a SASC member, and Reps. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.), both members of the House Armed Services committee, are pressing for the passage of the United States Army Relief Act. The legislation seeks to raise the cap of the Army’s end strength, said an aide to Tauscher.

It’s kind of interesting to see Democrats come out front on this, since it’s likely that they’re going to take some drubbing from conservative over "fearmongering about the draft." But they’re actually only doing what one neoconservative think tank — as I’ve pointed out before –  asked Congress to do months ago.

No mention of the "D word," though John has pointed out that the religious right seems to be softening up the ground for that (see bottom paragraph at link).  Still, what are you going to do if people just don’t volunteer in the numbers required? It seems young people and their parents are concerned enough about dying in Iraq to disuade consideration of military careers.

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.

…

Today, the Leave My Child Alone coalition called on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to establish a National Do Not Call List to safeguard family privacy from unwanted military recruitment.

This initiative is in response to recent revelations that the Pentagon, in violation of the Family Education Right to Privacy Act (FREDA), created and now uses a mega-database of private information on 30 million Americans ages 16 to 25, without anyone’s consent. The updated www.leavemychildalone.org web site shows parents how to "Opt Out" of such Pentagon lists.

Recruitment is still lagging. So, what if incentives and the like, don’t work,  but we still need boots on the ground?