Combating the Truth

UPDATE: below.

The MSM's playing taps for America's military. Not with a bang, but with a whimper: by depressed recruitment, reduced re-enlistment or more desertion. Are they right?

Nope.

Recruitment: It's up:

A fresh supply of recent high school graduates, more recruiters and more enticing enlistment incentives are being credited with the Army's second straight successful month of meeting its recruiting goals, according to the Defense Department's acting deputy undersecretary for military personnel policy. . .

The Army, Marine Corps and Air Force met or exceeded their goals for the month, and the Navy achieved 99 percent of its July goal, DoD officials reported.

Eight more men wanting to see the world would have been a perfect score.¹


• Retention: No problem:

  Active duty retention during July remained high, with all services meeting or exceeding their overall retention goals for the month, and expected to meet their goals for the fiscal year.

  And, contrary to the biased press, mid-East service is an incentive:

  Troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to reenlist. Some of this is due to higher re-enlistment bonuses, but those re-enlisting (and 35 percent of them do it in a combat zone) often say they believe strongly in what they are doing, and that’s why they volunteer to keep doing it. By the end of the year, the army expects to get 4,000 more re-enlistments than it expected. A disproportionate number of these are coming from combat troops, which is very helpful.

• Desertion: Is down:

  [T]here are a lot of deserters, 5,133 of them in 2004, out of nearly 1.2 million troops on active duty. But that was a one third decline from the 7,648 recorded in 2003. The decline continues, which is probably why it has not made the news. Military people are not surprised at the decline. Desertion is more of a peacetime, than a wartime, problem.

Conclusion: The figures reflect a military that overwhelmingly supported George Bush and his handling of the war. Still, leftists and other children claim terrorists are the heroes and urge President Bush to support our troops by withdrawing them. American's serving military disagree.

Not that you'd know that from the newspapers. As No Pundit Intended says:

[W]hen you take the liberal message to its furthest logical conclusion, you end up with nothing coherent. People who understand the issues are telling you what's right, while those on the left are hand-wringing over what is "right now". If you keep that in mind as you watch the news, you'll sleep a lot more soundly at night.

More:

NY Girl and The Anchoress have similar thoughts, both link-rich.

(via A Certain Slant of Light)

Still More:

Jeff Burton posted a chart showing American servicemen and women deaths in Iraq ranked per state and by population. Contrary to the "Chicken Hawk" claims, eight of the ten states with the most deaths are "red" (though # 1 is very blue Vermont).

(via The Corner)
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¹ Reserve recruiting in the Marine Corps and Air Force met or bettered the DOD's goals; other branches were about 80 percent of yearly goals.