Yes, we have a recruiting crisis in America because we're fighting too many wars at once, and the wars we are fighting are going terribly. That is no excuse for the Bush administration running TV commercials that try to convince kids to forget about college, and worse, that imply that recruits to the Army Reserves may not even see battle at all. This appeared on local TV in DC on January 23, 2007.
Transcript:
Young guy: I can still go to college.They'll train you UNTIL they need you? No, they need you NOW and they'll train you until you're ready, then they'll immediately ship you out to Iraq. They won't keep you near your dad "until" they need you. That's an outright lie, and it's intended to convince kids that there's a chance they won't have to leave home at all.
Dad: It's the Army.
Young guy: I'm gonna be part of something that's important. And it's the reserve [editor's note: he says this dismissively, as if it's not the REAL army, so not to fear], so they'll train me around here until they need me.
Again, I get the need for more troops - though I don't support giving Bush any more troops at this point - but do we really need to suggest to kids that they should forget college AND that they'll be able to hang out at home "until" they're needed?
NB for YouTube's lawyers. This is only a 12 second snippet, clearly fair use for commentary sake. And it's a product of the federal government - the feds can't copyright their work-product. Let's not undercut established law.
