The Recruiter

The Iraq war years have often been a brutal challenge in the field, but also at home, where U.S. military recruiters have struggled to fill the ranks when young Americans know that if they sign up they are almost certain to go to war.

In shopping malls and school halls and family kitchens, recruiters go to incredible lengths to meet their quotas for a military gasping for fresh troops.

A new HBO documentary gets inside the lives and hard sell of recruiters and recruits in a small southern town. It is intense in there.

This hour, On Point: Dreams, despair, patriotism and raw battlefront need.Guests:

Edet Belzberg, documentary filmmaker, she's the director of HBO's "The Recruiter."

Sgt. 1st Class Clay Usie, U.S. Army, former Army recruiter and subject of the documentary.

Cpl. Matthew Marks, U.S. Army, a recruit featured in the film, he's now an Army recruiter himself.