Military sees drop in black recruits
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The number of blacks joining the military has plunged by more than one-third since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars began, as other job prospects soar and relatives of potential recruits increasingly discourage them from signing up.
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Foreign troop levels in Iraq could drop to less than 100,000 by the end of 2008 if Iraq's own forces were ready and security threats had diminished, Iraq's national security adviser said on Wednesday.
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Military service may insulate candidates from 'weak on defense' charges.
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Fewer Iraqi security forces will be  fully trained by the end of this year than cited by President  Bush and it will take until July 2006 to fully train the police  force, according to Pentagon documents.
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WASHINGTON -- Overcoming the recruiting turnoff of a mounting US casualty toll in Iraq, the Army met most of its enlistment goals for the 2004 recruiting year, officials said yesterday.
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Some Army National Guard units may have to deploy overseas without a chaplain if recruitment incentives, including $10,000 signing bonuses, don't work to fill hundreds of vacant positions.
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Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Wednesday that British troop numbers in southern Iraq would be reduced from 7,100 to 5,500 in the months ahead.
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The number of UK troops in Iraq by the end of 2007 is expected to be lower "by thousands", the defence secretary says.
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A report says increased school choice does little to enhance the educational opportunities of black pupils.
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The Marine Corps fell slightly short of its recruiting goal in January, the first month that has happened in nearly a decade, amid parents' concerns about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Training time will be halved for troops bound for Afghanistan next year to address a shortfall, according to an early edition of The Times's Thursday newspaper.
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Senior British army commanders believe popular opposition to the war in Iraq has worsened existing problems in recruiting young people for the armed forces, a newspaper reported.
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The Irish Republican Army has stopped recruiting members and has shut down units responsible for bomb-making and weapons smuggling, an expert panel reported Wednesday in findings designed to spur a revival of Catholic-Protestant cooperation in Northern Ireland.
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The U.S. Army, strained by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, missed its recruiting goal for the second straight month in June, indicating a trend that some defense officials on Monday called worrying.
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Margie Black had wanted to enter the military as a teenager, but having her first child at 19 put off her ambitions. So when she learned the Army raised its enlistment age, Black, now a 41-year-old grandmother from West Columbia, Texas, didn't hesitate to join. The decision took "about 30 seconds," she said.
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Security forces are dying at a rate of 4 to 1 compared with US troops. But pay and hope for better future still draw recruits.
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Officials in this liberal city may soften their anti-recruitment stance toward the U.S. Marines in the face of widespread criticism