Iraq - U.S. casualties in Iraq top 1,500, the number of wounded is well over 10,000, 15,000 soldiers have gone Absent Without Leave (AWOL) since 2001, and recruiters at home fail to fill their monthly quotas of new volunteers. Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey says "we're very concerned" about not being able to enlist more troops. 5,114 new recruits were shipped off boot camp last month, 27 percent below the Army's goal of 7,050; it was the first time since May 2000 that the Army missed a monthly goal. A spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command, attributed the decline on the news media for coverage of violence in Iraq, among other things.
Friday, March 04, 2005
Iraq - U.S. casualties in Iraq top 1,500, the number of wounded is well over 10,000, 15,000 soldiers have gone Absent Without Leave (AWOL) since 2001, and recruiters at home fail to fill their monthly quotas of new volunteers. Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey says "we're very concerned" about not being able to enlist more troops. 5,114 new recruits were shipped off boot camp last month, 27 percent below the Army's goal of 7,050; it was the first time since May 2000 that the Army missed a monthly goal. A spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command, attributed the decline on the news media for coverage of violence in Iraq, among other things.