US Army News

It's intriguing what makes news in the US (via CNN) vs in Britain (via the BBC). A frontpage CNN article today talked about the horror of not making recruiting goals. Yesterday, the BBC ran an article that not only covered that in detail, but more importantly pointed out the rising divorce rate among army officers especially.

I was tempted to comment on the BBC article yesterday, but CNN ignoring that fact cinched the deal. Interesting that the conservatives are up in arms about how Massachusetts gays are going to destabilize marriage, while their own actions are doing a fine job of it on their own--WITH the statistics to back me up, which they don't have about gay marriage.

In the year to September 2002, 1.9% of percent of married Army officers got divorced, along with 3.1% of married enlisted soldiers, according to Pentagon figures cited by Reuters.

In 2003, when the Iraq war began, the figure for officers rose to 3.3% while for enlisted soldiers it fell to 2.8%.

The following year, the figures were 6% and 3.5% respectively.

The military said time spent away from a family, the strains of warfare, and problems readjusting to home life were all factors in the marriage break-ups.
--BBC