Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(Midsummer 2005)
An ex-Brit gives his views - (without
fear or favor) - of the American Scene
A
few good men and women;
 The, "Uncle Sam needs you", recruiting posters of the past
implied that the American armed forces needed a few good men, which in today’s
world of equality of the sexes has been appropriately changed to "a few
good men and women".
Unfortunately that is what the American Armed forces
are getting, "a very few new recruits". The word "FEW" is
the operative word in today's recruiting offices where the latest monthly
recruiting figures have fallen by at least twenty five percent.
I wonder why? A number of "retired" American senior officers, (who
became TV news consultants upon retirement), have pointed out many times since
the war in Iraq was won, that the number of Allied forces needed to control the
post war chaos and anarchy is totally inadequate and that the American Forces
depend to a great extent upon members of the National Guard, who have been the
backbone of the American forces in Iraq and have taken more than their fair share
of casualties.
Yet President Bush and his administration continue
to threaten to expand the Middle East wars further even
though we cannot control the Iraqi insurgents and the
casualties of American and other allied personnel increase
on a daily basis whilst at the same time the recruitment
of volunteers diminishes in number.
 It
has been reported that the Pentagon maintains a database
of high school and college student names presumably to
keep tabs on young people who could be recruited
for service with the American military.
As recruiting
numbers are well down from what is desired in order to
bolster an already overstretched military, the Pentagon
has indicated that it will relax its current stringent
requirements and age limits in order to take in older
officer material.
What next Mr. President the re-institution of a draft - which as you well know
would be political suicide?
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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