Military update: 'Bush's war' seen as depressing black re-enlistment

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-87494sy0mar25,0,6490170.story?coll=dp-news-local-final

By Tom Philpott
March 25, 2007

When Danny Edwards, 26, enlisted in the Army in April 2001, he expected to stay for a career.

He changed his mind in 2003 while serving in Iraq - a war being fought for reasons he said he still didn't understand.

Edwards left the Army on the front edge of what might be an unprecedented wave of black service members whose perception of the military as an avenue of opportunity has been altered by a war deeply unpopular in black communities.

Two years ago, we reported here that Army statistics showed a 40 percent decline in black recruits from 2000 through early 2005. The percentage still hovers around 15 percent, making recruiting difficult.

New data from the Defense Department show the ripple effect of that shift and deepening disapproval of the Iraq war on the numbers of blacks choosing to re-enlist in U.S. ground forces.

[marmar]

1. Since the College Republicans, chock full of upper-middle class white kids, so support this war....

They should sign up and fill the void.

[thereismore]

2. Blacks have figured out one white man's game. Hehe. nt