The jokes on the Mercenaries. From what I understand, the $40k signing bonus is heavily taxed. Gotta pay for the war, after all....

If Fahrenheit 9/11 is any indication, the aggressive recruiting is VERY subversive, more than ever before, and with more poor, disadvantaged youngins than ever before, recruiters have more desolate, lost boys and girls to prey on.

gomez, did you hear that one of the two marine recruiters in f9/11 in iraq?

Yeah, but he can still say, "no draft." As if that is something to crow about.

How do this year's "goals" compare to last year's?

One way the military has "met" its goals is to constantly revise them downwards every year.

I did, Charles, and how's that for poetic justice?

Any soldier in a time without a draft is a mercenary. Only when all citizens are soldiers, as in Switzerland and Israel, is any soldier not a mercenary.

Technically, a mercenary is a soldier who is paid to fight for an army other than that of his own country. I'd add to that description a soldier who will fight for whoever pays the most money.

Axeia, First let me say I am in the army and in public affairs, but I do not work with recruiting command. But lets see ... the 2005 goal year was 80,000 soldiers, 2004 was 77,000, in 2001 it was 75,800. All voluteers.

Lets See: Mercenary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary. the definition is closer to what keshmeshi stated.

I would also have to point out that every soldier in the revolutionary was was a volunteer. The Army is filled with soldiers who needed money for school, momne for a car, money because they wanted a steady job, and there are just as many that would do it to defend heir country and see it as their responsibility as citizens

Would it not be just as easy to call them patriots http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotism

I think one is probably closer to reality than the other, since it is my personnal experence that there are "mercenaries" out there that really do fight wars in other countries and they do get paid significantly more than any one I know in te service doing the same work.

The "Fnarf" who posted the above message is an imposter.

So, perhaps you would be willing to defend our country for free? Or would you rather we just hand over control to some tow-bit dictator without a fight?

That bonus is NOTHING compared to what the folks who are eligible for the big dollars could make in the civilian world with MUCH LESS risk to life and limb.

So, perhaps you would be willing to defend our country for free? Or would you rather we just hand over control to some two-bit dictator without a fight?

That bonus is NOTHING compared to what the folks who are eligible for the big dollars could make in the civilian world with MUCH LESS risk to life and limb.