Score

It's really more of an IQ test than anything else. The military is reporting a huge drop-off in filling key roles. That's the land military, not counting the Navy. I'm sure lots of bright kids are flocking to serve at sea, where al Qaida has yet to perfect the floating IED. They did blow up the USS Cole in Yemen, but that was a lot of bodies ago.

The military is falling far behind in its effort to recruit and re-enlist soldiers for some of the most vital combat positions in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new government report. The report, completed by the Government Accountability Office, shows that the Army, National Guard and Marines signed up as few as a third of the Special Forces soldiers, intelligence specialists and translators that they had aimed for over the last year.

Both the Army and the Marines, for instance, fell short of their goals for hiring roadside bomb defusers by about 20 percent in each of the last two years. The Army Reserve, meanwhile, failed to fill about a third of its more than 1,500 intelligence analysts jobs. And in the National Guard, there have been consistent shortages filling positions involving tanks, field artillery and intelligence.

Here's the formal test - see if you pass:

1) I want to serve as a Special Forces soldier and fight in Iraq.

Yes.
No.
Are you kidding?

2) I want to serve as a roadside bomb diffuser in Iraq.

No.
Forget it.
I am extremely stupid - please sign me up.

3) I want to join the National Guard to serve a weekend a month and two weeks in the Summer and unlimited combat duty in al-Armpyut Iraq.

No.
Just no, okay?
You wouldn't believe how stupid I am, please shoot me now.

None of us are shocked that, since most Americans now realize that Georgie lied them into the war, it's not something that their kids should die for. Increasingly, they're also realizing that it's not something other people's kids should die for either.

How many headlines have there been about double-digit killings in Iraq? Just today, at least 65 are dead in a suicide attack. Worse, how long will it be before 65 more corpses in Iraq is no longer front page news? I know it's been a while since I read the whole story of such a bombing. How about you? When did you last read that whole story?

I know what you're thinking: "where's the lie?" And you're right - there can't be any news that emerges from the Junta without having been protected by an outer layer, like an eggshell, in its infancy. Okay, here's your lie:

Officials with the accountability office, the independent investigative arm of Congress, found that some of the critical shortfalls had been masked by the overfilling of other positions in an effort to reach overall recruiting goals. As a result, the G.A.O. report questioned whether Congress had been given
an accurate picture by the Pentagon of the military's ability to maintain the force it needs for Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The aggregate recruiting numbers are rather meaningless," said Derek B. Stewart, the G.A.O.'s director of military personnel. "For Congress and this nation to truly understand what's happening with the all-volunteer force and its ability to recruit and retain highly qualified people, you have to drill down into occupational specialties. And when you do, it's very revealing."

Happy now? Of course they tried to cover it up. It's like they've de-criminalized coverups by constantly covering up everything they do. So, okay you got Scooter. But you didn't get all the Pentagon lies and you didn't get Darth Rove. They can shed one Dark Prince every now and then in the common goal of destroying America - that's just the cost of doing business.

Sorry, Scooter.