Army increases signing bonuses for high school graduates

Four years of war.  3,649 brave US soldiers killed.  President Bush will be forced to end the surge in April unless the Pentagon extends deployments beyond 15 months.  That means it all comes down to recruiting.  And recruiters are now pulling out all the stops to get high school graduates to attend basic training before August:

"Incentives make it easier for my recruiters togo out there and get people in to see us, that's pretty much it," saidArmy recruiter SFC Athena Evert.

It is a challengingenvironment. The war in Iraq drags on and support for military actiondwindles stateside. But support for the men and women doing thefighting remains strong.

The Army has missed monthly recruitinggoals back in 2005, and now again, in the past two months. Leadersremain confident, especially in Georgia, that annual goals will be met.

"Ican tell you for my battalion, we've actually increased," said Lt. Col.Twala Mathis. "Trends the last four years, some of our better times."

Thenew $20,000 bonus goes to recruits willing to go to basic trainingbefore August 27. The older bonuses that can reach the $40,000 mark arebased on the jobs the soldier chooses.

Nothing against military recruiters themselves.  Maybe if Bush had an actual plan to get out of Iraq, it would not be this difficult to recruit.  There is your common wisdom for the day!