Interesting that on a day the Pentagon claimed victory for its June recruitment numbers (even though they came
far short of their original goals), Republican senators are busy
casting blame for the recruitment woes.
Several Senate Republicans denounced other lawmakers and the news media on Thursday for unfavorable depictions of the Iraq war and the Pentagon urged members of Congress to talk up military service to help ease a recruiting shortfall.
Families are discouraging young men and women from enlisting "because of all the negative media that's out there," Sen. James Inhofe (news, bio, voting record), an Oklahoma Republican, said at a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
Inhofe also said that other senators' criticism of the war contributed to the propaganda of U.S. enemies. He did not name the senators [...]
"With the deluge of negative news that we get daily, it's just amazing to me that anybody would want to sign up," said Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican.
Roberts is whining that kids aren't enlisting? Maybe he should set an example. His family looks to be of military age:
Inhofe? Lots of military age-looking people there as well:
Bush talked about what an honorable profession the military can be.
We live in freedom because every generation has produced patriots willing to serve a cause greater than themselves. Those who serve today are taking their rightful place among the greatest generations that have worn our nation's uniform.
So we'll be seeing these two in uniform sometime soon?
Leaders lead by example. I doubt either of these two senators or the president would be willing to send their children and/or grandchildren to Iraq. Yet they expect others to take a bullet. They expect other families to make the sacrifice they themselves would not.
It's much easier to whine that the press reports the truth from Iraq -- that people are getting killed, that shit is getting blown up, and that the administration has no plan for victory.
(John Cole is also outraged.)