Army loses minorities
Joanna James
WORCESTER — Travis Morris is a prime target for army recruiters.
A junior at Doherty High School, Morris, 16, is smart, athletic
and African American.
There’s only one problem.
Morris says he wouldn’t think of joining the military.
“I’m scared because of the war,” he said in a
soft-spoken voice. “I would never want to go now.”
For Morris, it’s not a question of patriotism. The youngest
in a family of five, Morris said he would rather work or find other
means to attend North Carolina State, his “dream college,”
rather than be persuaded to enlist in the army, even with recruitment
incentives such as receiving a $10,000 initial bonus for serving
three or more years or up to $50,000 in tuition assistance.
Morris is not alone. Five years ago, 45 percent of the Army’s
enlistees were minorities, and 29 percent were African American,
according to federal statistics. Last year, African American enlistees
made up less than 14 percent.
Analysts point to the violence in the war in Iraq and a stronger
and more accessible economy as some of the reasons deterring today’s
youth from enlisting.
Srini Sitaraman, a professor in Clark University’s Department
of Government and International Relations, said not only has there
been an overall decline in military recruitment targets, but Sitaraman
emphasized the dramatic drop in African-American enlistees.
“There is a long-term trend here with African-Americans: the
military is no longer a way out and used as a way to better themselves,”
Sitaraman said. “There are other ways for African Americans
to move up on the socioeconomic ladder, including more and more
going to college and others getting blue-collared jobs.”
Critics of the war cite the insurgencies and violence in Iraq claiming
2,000 U.S. military lives as other disillusioning factors for why
recruitment numbers have been so low. In fact, the Army missed its
fiscal 2005 recruitment goal of 80,000 by 6,627 recruits —
more than 8 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Defense
that released its official military recruitment statistics earlier
this month.
Army Secretary Francis Harvey also acknowledged his concern with
the recruitment numbers, however he denied that the Army was in
the midst of a recruitment crisis, which he said at a press conference
earlier this month when the recruitment numbers were released.
Harvey pointed to a series of new initiatives to downscale the problem,
including an increase in the Army’s advertisement budget and
putting 3,000 more recruits on the streets.
Retired Air Force General Tad Oelstrom, now serves as the director
of Harvard University’s National Security Program in the Kennedy
School of Government, said there are a series of factors why the
recruitment numbers are at a low, including the constant media accounts
on casualties that put a “wear on anyone’s mind, especially
of the young folks.
“But more importantly,” Oelstrom said, “what young
folks are seeing is the mission the U.S. Military is being asked
to do is a stabilization mission, which is one the military has
not been asked to do in our history.”
Oelstrom explained that there “doesn’t seem to be an
end …any time soon” and the military is being asked
to handle a very dangerous situation with lots of unknowns.
Although President Bush has said the U.S. military is being asked
to fight for the spread of freedom and has compared the mission
to that of fighting totalitarianism during World War II, Oelstrom
pointed out that there is a major difference in the two missions.
“After World War II we went from a termination of hostilities
to peacekeeping with the aid from countries all over the world —
it didn’t include a phase that we’re seeing now in Iraq
— there is no transition in the classic sense of war fighting
to peacekeeping in Iraq,” Oelstrom said.
Although Oelstrom said the low recruitment numbers should be a concern
right now, he did not see it as a dire situation. But Oelstrom said
he hopes the Pentagon will take “a very serious look at what
U.S. Policy needs to be about.”
Travis Morris isn’t surprised that the U.S. Army missed its
annual recruiting goal for the first time in six years.
One of Morris’s friends actually did consider enlisting in
the U.S. Air Force more than a year ago. But he changed his mind
and decided to apply for a civilian job.
Josian Martinez also wants to go to college but unlike his friend
Morris, he doesn’t have a dream school. “I want to go
to whatever college I can afford,” he said.
Instead of joining he Air Force, Martinez, 16, landed a job at BestBuy,
and intends to help his Puerto Rican-born-and-raised parents by
saving money to help pay for college. Unfortunately for the Air
Force, Martinez’ plan doesn’t include the military.
“I didn’t want to go to the war then,” Martinez
said, “and I don’t want to go now.”
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