WAR: Army Plans Major Campaign To Increase Enlistment

Since a draft is currently not a viable option, the US Army is greatly increasing the cash bonuses for new enlistees along with several other new things to help increase the size of its force. Hundreds of new recruiters will also be deployed to help with this initiative. For certain specialized positions, the Army will pay a $15,000 enlistment bonus for a three-year enlistment.



It is excellent to see the Army using this plan instead of a draft to increase the size of its forces. However, it is sad that it has to. Clearly our nation's military is overextended and there is little that the Army itself can do about it.

Most likely, this won't be enough though. Many people do not want to know they might be shipped off to Iraq so that they can fight for a cause they aren't even sure about themselves.

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
DEFENSE: The Draft

[edit on 8-6-2004 by Valhall]

When I was in during the Clinton years, they were shaving our numbers left and right, getting rid of so many old timers we desperately needed.

Overextension is the problem here, if they want to continue this madness in Iraq, we need to end our stays in other countries like Korea, European Nations, japan..........

Even with a bad economy, most kids these days are gonna look at the war and think: why would I wanna sign up to get blown up for this BS?

Thanks to Iraq most eighteen year olds don't think the Army is very safe. Nice job Fox and CNN The other thing is the Navy is reguarded as safer than the Army and the Navy has had some huge advirtesment campaigns going. And the Navy definatly targets the right audience. I think we should just pull out our troops from around the world and station them back home. We should worry about defense not oil. But I like the concept of just spending more per soldier instead of mindlessly sending wave after wave of unmotivated, undertrained, and unequiped soldier at fortified positions.

So if the Imperialist States of America can't recruit the troops it needs will it resort to the much talked about and rumoured 'draft'. My thoughts, yes it will, yanks need their massive supply of oil after all.

Every country that doesn't produce enough of it's own oil is dependant from other countries. Don't sit there and critisize "yanks" for needing oil. "Yanks" also have 300,000,000 citizens compared to the 50 million "Brits." There are many countries that rely on the sale of oil as their primary sources of income. If the US stopped buying mid east oil you would see quite a few countries go into turmoil and hundreds of thousands would starve. The world is not so "black and white" where you can stop things without any negative consequences. You can't possibly believe the reason the US went to Iraq was for oil..

[edit on 7-8-2004 by Raphael]

Originally posted by Raphael
Every country that doesn't produce enough of it's own oil is dependant from other countries. Don't sit there and critisize "yanks" for needing oil. "Yanks" also have 300,000,000 citizens compared to the 50 million "Brits."

That's true but even when you take population differences into account, the US still uses more oil.

The US consumes 67.85 barrels per day per 1000 people, the UK consumes 28.28 barrels per day per 1000 people. China, which people have been blaming for the recent high oil prices, only consumes 3.80 barrels per day per 1000 people.
Oil Consumption

There are many countries that rely on the sale of oil as their primary sources of income. If the US stopped buying mid east oil you would see quite a few countries go into turmoil and hundreds of thousands would starve.

They'd manage to get by.
They still get a lot of sales to Europe and Asia.

North America accounts for 24.2% of Opec's exports
Western Europe accounts for 21.7%
Asia and Pacific account for 44.8%
www.opec.org...

Canada and Mexico might feel the loss a bit.
The US gets a lot of their oil from them.

[edit on 7-8-2004 by AceOfBase]

The military did drop many. But, you cannot blame it on Clinton. Yes, in that era, the military needed to be cut back. But, the military is at fault on how they did it. I was in at the time and they were only caring about numbers and not WHO they kept in.

AceOfBase: Great update on the oil usage!

BTW: Alaska has huge oil reserves, I am pretty sure we could get by for a while on that alone. But, why tap it? In many years when the Mideast does run out of oil, where will the world have to look?

Anyway... back to the draft subject............

I think that the Navy and Air force will have jumps in enlistment as they are fairly much out of the way. Well, of course depending on the MOS. If a draft is needed and I am guessing that it will be, I am sure you will see those two services packed with applicants before their draft notices arrive. Luckily.... I did my time....

Also, the Army has offered many bonuses in the past for specialties. This is nothing new. I had friends that were linguists and they got bonuses like that in 1988. I think nothing is really changing, just they are promoting it more now for advertisement purposes. The question will be ... Will the infantry or tank guys get the bonuses? Also, would you join to get the bonus if you knew you would be more than likely shipped off to Iraq? Remember, you can only choose your MOS (job) or your first duty assignment (location) if you voluntarily join. But, you cannot choose both.

[edit on 7-8-2004 by JCMinJapan]

War is good business ask Dick Chenny, invest your son