'Reenlistments Are Up!'
... and so is Bribery

The Morals of the Right (cont.)...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. With the prospect of continued fighting in Iraq, the Marine Corps is offering bonuses of up to $30,000 - in some cases tax-free to persuade enlisted personnel with combat experience and training to reenlist.

Don't get me wrong. We should be paying our troops a lot more than we are. But for Mr. Rumsfeld to have us believe that people are jumping at the chance of going to Iraq is pure bs, once again. What many struggling military families are doing is making the financial choice to more than double or triple their income and hope that their husbands and wives come home. The choice is even easier for single troops.

The plan is working, officials said. Less than two months into the fiscal year, Marine reenlistment rates in several key specialties are running 10% to 30% ahead of last year.

For example, officials are confident that by midyear, they will have reached their target for encouraging reenlistment among riflemen, the "grunts" who are key to the Marines' ability to mount offensives against insurgent strongholds such as Fallouja.

"No amount of money is too much to retain combat experience in the corps, rather than starting over," said Maj. Mark Menotti, assistant head of enlisted retention for the Marine Corps.

Giving bonuses to encourage Marines to reenlist is not new. But this year's bonus schedule marks the first time that "combat arms" specialties have received the largest bonuses. A year ago, the top bonus for a grunt was about $7,000.

The bottom line: we're buying reenlistments because we can't get enough initial enlistments. Rumsfeld thinking: it's still cheaper than paying civilian mercenaries.