Now is the time for all wingnut men...

...to come to the aid of their Fearless Leader.

While the 101st Fighting Keyboarders continue to extol the virtues of C-Plus Caligula's Mighty Adventure in Iraq, the Pentagon is trying mightily to figure out a way to spin its dismal recruiting levels (or to cook the books so the numbers look better than they are):

The Pentagon on Wednesday postponed by more than a week the release of military recruiting figures for May, as the Army and Marine Corps struggle to attract new troops amid the Iraq war.

The military services had routinely provided most recruiting statistics for a given month on the first business day of the next month.

Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the May numbers for the active-duty and reserve components of the all-volunteer military will be released on June 10.

"Military recruiting is instrumental to our readiness and merits the earliest release of data. But at the same time, this information must be reasonably scrutinized and explained to the public, which deserves the fullest insight into military performance in this important area," Krenke said.

Asked whether the move would simply delay the release of bad news, Krenke said, "That's not necessarily true," noting that "we expect the numbers to improve during the summer months."

Military recruiters have said potential recruits and their parents were expressing wariness about enlisting during the Iraq war. They said improving civilian job opportunities also were affecting recruiting.

The regular Army missed its recruiting goals for three straight months entering May, falling short by a whopping 42 percent in April. The Army was 16 percent behind its year-to-date target entering May, with a goal of signing up 80,000 recruits in fiscal 2005, which ends Sept. 30.

With recruitment not making goals, and the Administration rattling its sabers at North Korea (and to a lesser degree, Iran), the salivating neocons who run American foreign policy are going to be faced with only three options for satisfying their boners for wider war: inadequate manpower (i.e. the Iraq model), a draft (unlikely at this point, given the upcoming Congressional elections and a growing push for impeachment), or the use of mercenaries (now called "private military contractors).