National Guard Recruitment Pitch Leaves Out Iraq, Enlistments Soaring

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Amid pictures of men and women rescuing forest-fire and flood victims and handing out bottles of water to kids, spots touting the National Guard include these tantalizing numbers: “Up to $20,000 enlistment bonus”; “100 percent tuition assistance”; “Over 200 career fields to choose from.” These may be legitimate incentives, but the ads, in newspapers and on billboards across the country, fail to mention these number: Nearly half, 41%, of units currently fighting in Iraq are National Guard units; More than 400 guard troops have died fighting overseas since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003.

“Whether they’re going up against hurricanes, floods, blizzards or wildfires, the National Guard is always the winning team,” reads one ad, shown in the Washington City Paper, nary a mention of fighting a war overseas, not a gun in sight.

The ad campaign seems to be working. Guard recruitment is soaring, reaching record highs this month in several states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

The National Guard Bureau reports that the Army Guard is at 99 percent of its 350,000 capacity and that 2006 reflects the best recruiting and retention year since 2003, when the force fell short of its recruiting goals by 20 percent.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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