good news(*)

Good news, everyone - the Army met its recruiting goal for the just-ended fiscal year. They had 80,000 people join up. Hooray.

Now for the (*) behind the news. They rushed a bunch of people who had signed up into uniform abnormally quickly. In other words, they essentially borrowed from 2008 to make it in 2007.

And the 80,000 was still short of what the military hoped for to allow for an expansion of the Army. Seems that the prospect of doing multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan isn't much of a lure.

So, as is true for essentially everything with the de facto Bush Administration, take the statement of "good news" with a grain of salt. Because either it is good news for the wealthy and well-connected (tax cuts, for example), or it is good news that is purely bull.