Iraq Recruits in Ramadi, but Few Takers

[sabra]

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0306/314254.html

Iraq Recruits in Ramadi, but Few Takers

RAMADI, Iraq (AP) - Beyond the army recruiting center's maze of blast walls and barbed wire, a roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi Humvee. From a rooftop across the street, a gunman popped up and took aim, drawing a brief hail of return fire. In the building next door, a mortar round crashed through the roof.

Nobody ever said recruiting for the Iraqi army would be easy. And by the end of the first army recruiting drive in this insurgent-infested city Monday, just 31 young men had stepped through the door to join up.

The low turnout highlights the difficulty of filling the army's ranks in Ramadi, where Sunni residents both distrust the Shiite-dominated Iraqi military already deployed here and fear joining up will mark them as insurgent targets.

"For a place like Ramadi, we're doing well to have any recruits at all," said U.S. Marine Capt. Selden Hale, a recruiting adviser. "But it's a start, and it's progress, whether it's one (recruit) or 1,000."

[LiberalVoice]

1. "But it's a start"

3 years into it. :eyes:

[sabra]

2. I know, at this pace...