WASHINGTON (The Dissociated Press) - The US military announced Tuesday it has met all of its annual recruiting goals for the year - the first time that has happened since the mid 1970s, when young people starting realizing that the last time the US military had actually defended American territory was in 1812.
In announcing the milestone, the Pentagon said the nation’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression played a key role in boosting enlistments.
"We've found through years of careful research that, in times of mass unemployment and poor economic outlook, people, particularly males in their late teens and early twenties, start looking for places where they can get guns," said senior Pentagon recruiting official, Capt. Curtis Gilroy. "We give guns to young people with few other prospects. It's really that simple!"
Meanwhile, at the White House, President Obama convened top political, military, and national security aides in an Afghan "war council" meeting Wednesday, his 63rd since last Friday, to discuss whether or not to wait until he has accepted the Nobel Peace Prize before sending 40,000 - 60,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan to intensify the 8 year-old military occupation of that country.
Mr. Obama will travel to Oslo, Norway in December, where he will be presented with the 2009 Nobel Prize for Peace in the presence of Norway's reigning monarch, King Harald V, affectionately known by his countrymen as "Old Cue Ball." As tradition has it, the award ceremony will take place in the Oslo City Hall, where the American president also plans to appeal a 2002 parking ticket (for leaving his reindeer within 4 meters of a fjord) before a local magistrate.
The President's triumphant return to Scandinavia should help remove some of the sting from his rejection last month in Copenhagen by the International Olympic Committee. On September 28th, Mr. Obama appeared in person before the IOC and gave an impassioned speech, trying to convince its members to allow Oprah Winfrey to host the 2016 Olympic Games.
In announcing the milestone, the Pentagon said the nation’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression played a key role in boosting enlistments.
"We've found through years of careful research that, in times of mass unemployment and poor economic outlook, people, particularly males in their late teens and early twenties, start looking for places where they can get guns," said senior Pentagon recruiting official, Capt. Curtis Gilroy. "We give guns to young people with few other prospects. It's really that simple!"
Meanwhile, at the White House, President Obama convened top political, military, and national security aides in an Afghan "war council" meeting Wednesday, his 63rd since last Friday, to discuss whether or not to wait until he has accepted the Nobel Peace Prize before sending 40,000 - 60,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan to intensify the 8 year-old military occupation of that country.
Mr. Obama will travel to Oslo, Norway in December, where he will be presented with the 2009 Nobel Prize for Peace in the presence of Norway's reigning monarch, King Harald V, affectionately known by his countrymen as "Old Cue Ball." As tradition has it, the award ceremony will take place in the Oslo City Hall, where the American president also plans to appeal a 2002 parking ticket (for leaving his reindeer within 4 meters of a fjord) before a local magistrate.
The President's triumphant return to Scandinavia should help remove some of the sting from his rejection last month in Copenhagen by the International Olympic Committee. On September 28th, Mr. Obama appeared in person before the IOC and gave an impassioned speech, trying to convince its members to allow Oprah Winfrey to host the 2016 Olympic Games.
However, the IOC rejected Mr. Obama's appeal, instead awarding the games to Jesus Christ, who is shown here standing atop the new, state-of-the-art, 735 meter-high platform-diving facility he said "God built specifically for these games."
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