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Jonathan Movroydis: Military Enlistment The Highest Since Nixon Days

[Jonathan recently graduated from the University of California, Irvine. His research and writing interests include political ideology, religion, and their respective impact on domestic and world politics.]

The Washington Post is reporting that military recruiters have posted their best year since 1973, bringing in nearly 170,000 new troops in 2008, 3 percent above their stated goals. The Post credits the ballooning civilian unemployment for a surge in enlistment rates.

But Pentagon officials are crediting the declining violence in Iraq for the upswing, which can ultimately be credited to Washington’s moment of truth in fighting small wars of attrition, and innovative Generals like David Petraeus and Ray Ordierno who sought a responsible exit from what seemed interminable just three years ago.

Similarly, RN insured an honorable exit from Vietnam, all while conducting groundbreaking diplomatic efforts in China and Russia, effectively reestablishing American prestige on the World stage.

When Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird declared the end of the draft in January 1973, 75 percent of Americans approved of RN’s handling of Vietnam, a sweeping mandate that also reflected the youth’s revived fervency for volunteerism.
Read entire article at The New Nixon