Army Recruitment in South Los Angeles

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Los Angeles is the largest city to make a call to end the war in Iraq. The city council just passed a resolution calling for immediate troop withdrawal. Meanwhile, I talked to local Los Angeles residents to see what they thought about the war.
The University Village near USC hosts the largest army recruitment center for South Los Angeles. Despite a drop in enlistments nationwide, an army recruiter there told me the number of people joining has been steady in the region. His office enlists 10 to 12 people each month. I talked to about a half a dozen local residents at the University Village to hear their opinions on the war. Most of them expressed feelings against it. Even as the war becomes more unpopular, the United States Army is meeting its mission to enroll 80,000 Americans every year for active duty and 26,000 in Army Reserve Services. Recruiters say common incentives for people to enlist include job security, education, and signing bonuses. Since the war began in 2003, the Pentagon has raised salaries several times. But the military has lowered the standards for enlistees. There now enroll more high school dropouts and people with police records. Regardless of who serves in the army, many Los Angeles residents want the soldiers to return to safe ground. Since the war began, more than 3,500 Americans have been killed. More than 100 of those were from Los Angeles.