Is is breezy in here?


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Army appears likely to fall short of its full-year recruiting goal for the first time since 1999, raising longer-term questions about a military embroiled in its first protracted wars since switching from the draft to a volunteer force 32 years ago.

Many young people and their parents have grown more wary of Army service because of the likelihood of being dispatched on combat tours to Iraq or Afghanistan, opinion polls show. 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.

here

Which leads us to ....

When Marine recruiters go way beyond the call

"They were telling me I needed to 'be a man' and stand up to my family," Axel said. What he needed, it turned out, was a lawyer.

Desperate times do not call for kidnapping


from CNN.com and The Daily Kos