Nader does his best to get headlines with a mainstream press largely against him:
"The Pentagon is quietly recruiting new members to fill local draft boards, as the machinery for drafting a new generation of young Americans is being quietly put into place," Mr. Nader said in a press release sent out to constituents and posted on his Web site during the weekend.Are the armed forces in that much need?"Young Americans need to know that a train is coming, and it could run over their generation in the same way that the Vietnam War devastated the lives of those who came of age in the sixties."
Despite a rising tide of combat deaths and the prospect of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan for years to come, Americans continue to volunteer for duty and are re-enlisting at record rates.Posted by Henry Hanks at April 13, 2004 06:51 PM | TrackBackThe services believe a combination of patriotism and the economy is driving people to the military and keeping them there.
“The war is not only not having a negative effect, but it is helping to reinforce the number of people who want to join,” said Cmdr. John Kirby, a spokesman for the Navy’s Bureau of Personnel.
Even the Army National Guard, which has had 150,000 citizen soldiers mobilized for up to a year, has seen retention rates “going through the roof,” said Guard spokesman Maj. Robert Howell.