[Mb-civic] Military's Recruiting Troubles Extend to Affluent War Supporters - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Military's Recruiting Troubles Extend to Affluent War Supporters

By Terry M. Neal, washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Monday, August 22, 2005; 8:00 AM

There was an eye-opening article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette a few 
days ago that explored the increasing difficulty the military is having 
recruiting young people to enlist. As has been well reported in many 
newspapers, including The Washington Post, the Army and Marines are 
having a particularly tough time meeting recruitment objectives, in part 
because of Americans' concern about the war in Iraq.

When you dig deeper into the reason for this phenomenon, it turns out 
that parents of potential soldiers and sailors are becoming one of the 
biggest obstacles facing military recruiters. Even top military 
officials acknowledge this and unveiled a new series of ads this spring 
targeted at "influencers" such as parents, teachers and coaches.

But the Post-Gazette raises another issue. There has been much talk 
about the relationship between race and ethnicity and military 
recruitment. But what about social and economic class? Are wealthier 
Americans, who are more likely to be Republicans and therefore more 
likely to support the war, stepping up to the plate and urging their 
children and others from their communities to enlist?

Unfortunately, there has been no definitive study on this subject. But 
it appears that the affluent are not encouraging their children and 
peers to join the war effort on the battlefield.

The writer of the Post-Gazette article, Jack Kelly, explored this 
question in his story that ran on Aug. 11. Kelly wrote of a Marine 
recruiter, Staff Sgt. Jason Rivera, who went to an affluent suburb 
outside of Pittsburgh to follow up with a young man who had expressed 
interest in enlisting. He pulled up to a house with American flags 
displayed in the yard. The mother came to the door in an American flag 
T-shirt and openly declared her support for the troops.

But she made it clear that her support only went so far.

"Military service isn't for our son," she told Rivera. "It isn't for our 
kind of people."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/19/AR2005081900815.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20050823/bd67cd1f/attachment.htm