Interesting:

CBS News has learned that the Army will halt recruiting for one day later this month to re-instruct its recruiters on what they may and may not legally do to persuade young people to enlist.

... The so called "stand down" follows a rash of complaints that recruiters are resorting to unscrupulous tactics to enlist new soldiers....

So, how much unscrupulousness are we talking about? Well, a 20-year-old naned Chris Monarch called a recruiting office in Houston and said he was interested in joining the Army.

Sgt. Thomas Kelt was the recruiter.

But a new baby changed Monarch's plan to enlist and he cancelled his meeting with the recruiter.

"I said I'm a volunteer firefighter and eventually gonna try to go career with it and I'm just not interested anymore and I hung up the phone," Monarch said.

But the recruiter wouldn't take no for an answer -- with a phone message threatening Monarch with arrest if he didn't show.

"By federal law you got an appointment with me at two o'clock this afternoon at Greenspoint Mall." said Kelt. "OK, you fail to appear and we'll have a warrant, OK? So give me a call back."

In fear, Monarch called the recruiter back.

"He said, 'Oh Chris, don't worry about that. That's just a marketing technique I use,"' Monarch recounted....

Yikes.

Another story:

In Colorado, 19-year-old Michael Flaherty's recruiter gave him a laxative to lose weight to pass a physical.

"They even told me not to tell my parents about it," Flaherty said.

A form certified Flaherty physically fit -- complete with scores.

"I never completed any of those tests and my recruiter faked the documents," he said.

Of course, what can these guys do? They're recruiting for a war that's still being run by the same muleheaded fuck-ups, Bush and Rumsfeld and the rest, who made it a quagmire in the first place. How do you sell that?

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There have been a number of stories like this lately, as I should have pointed out -- see, for example, this roundup from Under the Same Sun.