Economy Down, Military Recruitment Up

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army.jpg With the ranks of the jobless increasing in droves it’s not surprising that Americans are joining the ranks of a ready and willing employer, the Armed Forces. The Pentagon announced yesterday that all active duty and reserve components, and the Army National Guard, met or exceeded their goals for the first time since 2004, the year that violence intensified in Iraq.

This includes our beleaguered Army, which is plastering its ads (like this one to the right) with dollar signs. Still, let’s not forget we are involved in two wars, and while the new GI Bill is a good thing, we still want more career choices all around. Because otherwise we’ll continue to have what’s akin to an economic draft, further forcing those without financial means into military service.

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It’s risky, but also unavoidable: A full one-third of the dollars that we need to pay for the journalism you rely on has to get raised in December. A good December means our newsroom is fully staffed, well-resourced, and on the beat. A bad one portends budget trouble and hard choices.

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We simply can’t afford to come up short. There is no cushion in our razor-thin budget—no backup, no alternative sources of revenue to balance our books. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the fierce journalism we do. That’s why we need you to show up for us right now.

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