Bush should speak out on recruitment

The Quiet Man - New York Times
This version of article includes a note from the editor that revises the piece, which earlier included a sharper comment on the writer's call back to service. See the editor's note for comments.
I address this OPED in a letter to the New York Times, which I will post shortly. The letter includes a key requirement for a credible recruiting pitch by George Bush.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

New York Times via fax (212) 556-3622

To the editor:

Phillip Carter urges that President George Bush make a military recruiting speech (July 6, 2005). Carter is concerned--as should be all Americans--with the "military manpower meltdown".
In his speech at Fort Bragg on June 28, President Bush intoned that there is "no higher calling" than serving one's country in uniform. This is sound political boiler-plate, but the Commander-in-Chief needs to move beyond rhetoric. The army and the marines face a recruitment crisis that is so serious that it is now a serious structural constraint on U.S. military strategy.
There is a noble tradition in the U.S. of president's children serving in uniform. One thinks of the sons of FDR and Ike, for instance, not to mention Nixon's son-in-law. In this spirit, imagine the following call to service from the Rose Garden: "There is no higher calling than military service and this is why I am urging my daughters Jenna and Barbara to seriously consider volunteering."
That would be even more effective than the recruitment speech that Phillip Carter suggests.

--
Augustus Richard Norton