The Place of Dead Roads

From CBS News, Army Recruiting Continues To Lag:

[Number of new recruits] fell about 25 percent short of its target of signing up 6,700 recruits in May. The gap would have been even wider but for the fact that the target was lowered by 1,350.

The Army said it lowered the May target...knowing that the difference will have to be made up in the months ahead. The Army also missed its monthly targets in April, March and February — each month worse than the one before.

And why might the Pentagon be having a hard getting new recruits?

U.S. troops are dying at a rate of two a day in Iraq, more than two years after President Bush declared that major combat operations had ended.

Ever the ones to smile:

Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty...said...the Army remains cautiously optimistic that it will make up the lost ground this summer...and reach the full-year goal of 80,000 enlistees.

Ok, maybe not so optimistic in light of the real numbers,

[T]hat with only four months left in the budget year, the Army is at barely 50 percent of its goal. Recruiters would have to land more than 9,760 young men and women a month, on average

Recall, only 5025 recruits in May. Or almost double this number for each of the next four months. But wait, there may be a solution!

[T]he Army's recruiting woes are likely to persist until the children of upper-class America begin to enlist more readily.

They aren't referring to the children of the upper-class Republician Bush supporter are they? Not the sweet children of the ones who so proudly adorn their high-end SUVs with (temporary) magnetic "Support the Troops" stickers?