Mapleberry Blog

The military is falling far behind in its effort to recruit and re-enlist soldiers for some of the most vital combat positions in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new government report.

The report, completed by the Government Accountability Office, shows that the Army, National Guard and Marines signed up as few as a third of the Special Forces soldiers, intelligence specialists and translators that they had aimed for over the last year.

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The report found that, in all, the military, which is engaged in the most demanding wartime recruitment effort since the 1970's, had failed to fully staff 41 percent of its array of combat and noncombat specialties.

The conventional wisdom is that this is yet another miscalculation by the Bush administration - that Iraq has frightened away potential recruits instead of inflaming the gung-ho sensibilities of credulous 18-year-olds.

I'm not so sure. The administration will argue that these positions must be filled - the security of the United States must not be compromised! So the shortfalls in military staffing must be made up somehow. The 'Publicans, already fearful that they're looking at a political bloodbath in the 2006 midterm elections, are not going anywhere near the topic of re-instituting a draft, and the administration knows that full well - in fact, I believe they are counting on it.

What they WILL do, however, under the rubric of "National Security," is to hire it done, at 5 to 10 or more X the cost of regular military. The Guard and Reserve will, of course, continue to provide the cheap cannon fodder to be killed, 2 or 3 a day, ad infinitum, while private military contractors (let's not mince words - they are mercenaries) will get hugely profitable contracts to perform (at 5 to 10 or more x the cost) the jobs the now- unrecruitable regular-military folks would be doing. Sure, some of this Iraq stuff is probably about oil - but it seems like there's a much higher profit margin in humans. Plus there'sa seemingly inexhautible supply and no pesky capital investment. Further, the more troublesome the war, the higher the price (and the profit margins) can be. Just remember - Dick Cheney's company, Halliburton, is in both the oilfield-services business AND in the private military business.