August 5, 2005

Recent media coverage has given extended time to the Army's difficulties in signing new recruits while largely ignoring the phenomenal recent success in getting combat veterans to re-enlist.

The Army is already far ahead of the pace needed to reach its goal of persuading 64,162 current enlisted men, from privates to top sergeants, to commit to additional service.

Among elite units bearing the brunt of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, overwhelming numbers want to return to the fight: the 82nd Airborne, for instance, reached an astonishing 97 percent of its yearly re-enlistment goal by the end of May!

These numbers show that alarming press coverage of fighting in Iraq may scare away some civilians from military service, but those who know the situation first hand feel disproportionately eager to continue the struggle.

Despite any stateside skepticism, the rising numbers of reenlistments prove that our men and women in uniform overwhelmingly believe in their mission, and want to insure its ultimate success.

I'm Michael Medved.

Beyond The News Commentaries, produced daily by Salem Communications, bring concise and penetrating insight to everything from the current headlines to challenges facing the church, from our culture wars to the Middle East conflict and from Hollywood to Washington, D.C. These daily features cover politics, culture, religion and science with perspective from the sharpest minds in the Christian and conservative world today: David Aikman, Terry Eastland, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, Albert Mohler, Dennis Prager and Janet Parshall.