Not in the Post Watch: Soldiers Want To Kill Enemies

It wouldn't surprise me if this story in the Washington Times, Recruits Join Armed Forces Seeking War, is a rebuttal to this story in the Post, Youths in Rural U.S. Are Drawn To Military (Recruits' Job Worries Outweigh War Fears, the subhed helpfully tells us, in a story based on data from the nonpartisan National Priorities Project. Which opposes the war, as any decent nonpartisan would. Not that the Post's Ann Scott Tyson told you that).

The Washington Times today:

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- Marine Corps recruit Steven Levine, 17, wants to be a sniper or a member of a "Force Recon" team, one of the Corps' special operations units.
    "If I'm going to war, I want to be with the best," says Mr. Levine, a Baltimore native whose parents had to sign an age waiver for him to enlist in the Marines.
    Mr. Levine has to get through boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., and then attend infantry training school, but, he says, it's the "fast track" to war.
    Going to war, more than job opportunities and money for college, is the post-September 11 allure for joining the armed services, military officials say. And, in a trend that bewilders and dismays those opposed to the war in Iraq, enlistment numbers are up and recruiting goals are mostly being met or exceeded....

Reporter W. Thomas Smith Jr. informs us that out of all the services, including the combat-heavy Marines, only the Army has missed its recruiting goals at any time during four of the last five years--and this in a period when the Army has been growing.

For the enemy, when the U.S. military meets its recruiting goals, it's a grim milestone.