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03/16/2005:

"African-American Youths Are Rejecting Army, Military Says"

As he made his way to the cafeteria, Malcolm Cotton spotted the Army recruiters passing out video games and making their pitches from a long table they had set up in a hallway at his school.

The recruiters made joining sound oh so terribly good - a $20,000 bonus for enlisting, $9,000 more if enlistees shipped out in the next 30 days and even better, $70,000 for college.

Cotton, 18, a senior at Gateway High School, just walked on by without pausing, almost with disdain.

"I love this country and I will defend this country if someone is really attacking us," he said. "But I don't agree with this war. I believe it's really nonsense. It's about power and taking oil. I really don't think we need to be over there fighting."

Increasingly, young African-Americans have been turning away from the Army, many for the same reasons as Cotton, the military says. They don't agree with the war. They dislike President George W. Bush's handling of the military and foreign policies, and they are not willing to fight and possibly die for a cause they don't believe in.

The number of African-American recruits, a cornerstone of the Army in recent years, has plummeted, the military says. And the Army is struggling to maintain a force large enough to wage a war on two fronts, Afghanistan and Iraq.

For years, African-Americans have made up nearly 25 percent of the Army, more than twice their representation in the general population. The military, especially the Army, has had a long history of providing opportunities for African-Americans.

But since 2000, according to the Department of Defense, African-American representation among Army recruits has fallen sharply.

In 2000, 23.5 percent of Army recruits and 26.5 percent of Army Reserve recruits were African-American. Last year, African-Americans represented just 15.9 percent of Army recruits and 20.2 percent of Army Reserve recruits. As of the end of last month, those numbers had fallen even further - to 13.9 percent of Army recruits and 18.4 percent of Army Reserve recruits.

Full Article: commondreams.org