Military.com
“Contrary to popular belief, recruiting offices didn’t fill up after 9/11 like they did after the attack on Pearl Harbor. A modest rise in enlistments followed 9/11, but that increase quickly dissipated as the nation got caught up in two grinding wars.
By 2006, the services were missing recruiting goals. They began lowering standards and offering enlistment bonuses to draw volunteers. In 2003, 94 percent of Army active-duty recruits had high school degrees. Four years later that number had fallen to 82 percent, according to the Army Recruiting Command.”
There were alternatives, like increasing wages & benefits. But why should anyone have joined? GWB wanted America to feel good about itself, and not make any sacrifices. So we didn’t increase taxes to pay for the war, we didn’t explain WHY there was a war...for the most part, we tried to pretend we were not at war.
The recruiting offices were operating without anyone at the top of the government making the case to join.
This was from a 2004 NPR report:
“Currently, there are 499,000 active duty Army troops, backed up by 700,000 National Guard and Army reservists. That’s a third less than when the U.S. fought its last big war in the Persian Gulf, in 1991...
...LT. GEN. JOHN VINES, U.S. Army: Many of our forces have been deployed for a year; some are on their second deployment. And so, right now, the demands on the individual soldier are enormous...
...The new pressures on the Army recently led a bipartisan group of 128 members of the house to call on President Bush to increase the Army’s overall size, called end strength, and to reduce the time reservists must spend on active duty. Republican Heather Wilson of New Mexico is a leader of the effort.
REP. HEATHER WILSON, R-N.M.: I think all of us are concerned that we’re going to see back-to-back combat deployments for American military personnel. And you can’t sustain that for very long without acknowledging forthrightly that we need to increase the end strength of our active duty people in order to meet the needs of the continuing war on terrorism.
KWAME HOLMAN: The Pentagon’s top leaders agree the Army is busy, but say that doesn’t mean its size should be increased. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers.
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff: One of the most expensive things you can do in the department of defense is hire somebody. Sixty percent of our budget is in the personnel line. So with health care, all that ... all those pieces, it’s a very expensive solution, and it’s not a solution that comes on line right away...
...KWAME HOLMAN: The Army estimates that each 10,000-soldier increase costs $1.2 billion a year. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he’s open to growing the Army, but last month he said he wasn’t convinced of the need.
DONALD RUMSFELD: If at any moment there was an analysis that suggested one of the services was too small, obviously we would recommend an increase in it. We just don’t have that kind of analysis at the present time...
...JIM LEHRER: Today, Secretary Rumsfeld acknowledged the Army is stretched thin because of Iraq. But again, he said a permanently bigger Army may not be the answer to a temporary problem.”
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june04/army_1-13.html