LET'S ROLL.....
This is what it's all about folks, NEVER, EVER, EVER FORGET........
Posted on 03/19/2002 12:26:24 PM PST by Lanman
Army struggling to boost recruitment of Arab Americans
By JIM IRWIN
The Associated Press
3/19/02 1:41 AM
DETROIT (AP) -- Largely frustrated in its efforts to recruit Arab Americans -- a task begun months before the Sept. 11 terror attacks -- the Army has enlisted help from a grass roots organization.
Army officials earlier this month invited staffers with the Arab American & Chaldean Council to Fort Sill, Okla., where they learned about opportunities offered by military service.
Publishers of two newspapers circulated among southeast Michigan's estimated 270,000 Arab-Americans and Chaldeans -- ethnic Iraqi Christians -- also made the trip.
William Salaita, director of employment and training for the council, said he planned to discuss Army opportunities for Arab Americans on Tuesday during his hour-long call-in program on a Southfield radio station.
"When you mention military, it has to be linked to war whether you like it or not," Salaita said Monday. "The majority of my talk will be about education opportunities -- `You will go back to civilian life equipped with experience and knowledge."'
Arab Americans comprise 1.4 percent of the United States' total population, but represent less than 0.5 of a percent of those enlisted in the Army, the council said in a news release.
Cultural factors largely account for the low proportion of Arab Americans in the Army, according to Salaita and Lt. Col. Gary Pease, commander of the Lansing-based Great Lakes Recruiting Battalion.
First- and second-generation Arab Americans are leery of the military, while those who have been here longer are not sufficiently aware of what the Army has to offer, Salaita said.
"The majority of people that are here from Middle Eastern countries, they have developed a fear of the military," said Salaita, whose organization provides employment, job training, health programs and other social services for Arab Americans and Chaldeans.
The strong influence of their elders on young Arab Americans, even those older than 18, means the Army must market itself to several generations, Pease said.
"The biggest thing we're finding is a lack of understanding by the parents of what the Army is all about," he said. "We need to expand our recruiting efforts beyond high school and college to reach out to the parents and grandparents."
Pease, who is responsible for recruiting across all of Michigan except the western Upper Peninsula, said he began trying to enlist more Arab Americans a year ago, in part because of the Army's desire for more Arabic-speaking soldiers.
"After 9-11 it became more critical to me personally," he said. "My goal last year was eight (Arab American recruits). This year it's eight. That hasn't changed since 9-11."
Neither Salaita nor Pease said they thought Arab Americans would be reluctant to serve in the Army because of the possibility -- or reality -- that the United States might wage war on Arabic or Muslim countries.
"When we fought the Gulf War, we had the Saudi Army, the Syrian army" within the U.S.-led coalition that opposed Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Pease said.
Salaita said he and other leaders would try to spark interest in Army service by appealing to patriotism, something many Arab Americans have worked to demonstrate since Sept. 11.
"It's the freedom that must be protected," he said. "You have to have that willingness to protect the country."
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LET'S ROLL.....
This is what it's all about folks, NEVER, EVER, EVER FORGET........
Creating the softheaded "outreach " approach simply means inviting your killers to your home, feed them clothe them and give them an allowance while they wait to slice your throat or blow you to smithereens.
I'd be willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of the 0.5% are Arab Christians like the Chaldean group.
Let's Roll!
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