For the past couple of years, we have repeatedly heard spokesmen from the National Guard and the reserve aver that they were continuing to meet their basic recruitment goals within a few percentage points. It never ceased to amaze me that there were so many who would sign up even as the debacle in Iraq went from bad to worse and record numbers of guardsmen and reservists were being called up for long deployments in combat zones overseas.
Well, maybe those assurances were not quite as optimistic as they had sounded. According to US Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC), who has just returned from a visit to Iraq:
- Increasing bonuses and benefits will attract recruits, he said, noting there has been a 75 percent drop in the number of active duty personnel who subsequently go into the National Guard and reserves.
Naturally though, he does note that he still doesn’t think there will be a draft and apparently believes that the Administration will be able to contiually pull live rabbits out of a empty magician’s hat.