Bribery for the Soldiers of the Empire

I see that the Army is offering a $20,000 bribe to potential enlistees if they agree to ship out to basic training within 30 days. Now that's a lot of money to its target audience, the poor and unschooled who are working for minimum wage in the WalMart economy. It's a strong persuasion for someone who most likely has never seen that kind of money and who probably thought he or she never would.

And it's a clear indicator that the military is in trouble. Enlistments are down because no one in his or her right mind is going to be willing to be sent to Iraq over and over and over again, just to further the goals of the Evil Empire.

It wasn't enough, apparently, to relax the admission standards so that the borderline retarded and convicted felons could join up. Now they have to sweeten the pot with some cold hard cash.

It reminds me of a poster back in the 60s: What if they gave a war and no one came?

Looks like we're getting pretty close to that now.