Georges' Legacy....

As Little Georges's term in office winds down, he is rightly concerned about his legacy. That's the reason for his sudden interest in assisting the peace talks between the Palestinians and the Isralis. Little George's legacy will include the damage he has done to our military. Repeated tours of duty have created a continuing strain on our military personnel and equipment that will take decades to correct. A couple of recent articles have caught my attention in this area. First, the number of high school graduates enlisting in the Army has fallen significantly. The Army's goal is 90 percent high school graduates, which it hasn't met since 2004. Each year since, the number of recruits with at least a high school diploma has steadily declined. National Priorities Project, a research group that analyzes federal data, found that only 71 percent of Army recruits graduated from high school in the 2007 budget year. Additionally, soldiers listed as high quality recruits, meaning a high school graduate and who scored in the top half of the Army's qualification test, has fallen from 61% in 2004 to 45% today. The Department of Defense is planning to increase the size of the military to help alleviate the strain of repeated deployments....the obvious question is where are these recruits going to come from and what what quality they will be.
A second article noted that the Virginia National Guard is having trouble filling Chaplain spots. They only have 8 of 19 spots filled and this is part of a national trend. Overall the National Guard has only 350 of 700 Chaplain spots filled.....Guess even ministers get tired of all the deployments.
And a final, sad situation: The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy. Much is asked of our soldiers and little is given in return. We thank them for their duty, but provide little in the way of ongoing support. As Little George presides over an economy quickly heading into a depression he continues to support tax cuts for corporations and the rich while cutting budgets of institutions that could provide a safety net for our returning veterns.
Little George has a legacy.....it's just not the one he would like to have.