Support our felons?
Just when you thought boot camp couldn't get any scarier .. how about over 100,000 waivers for new recruits with criminal backgrounds over the last three years?
Yeah .. American gays can’t fight openly but we welcome felons and criminals -- convicted burglars, muggers, wife-beaters and drunk drivers who have killed pedestrians -- to join up. Uncle Sam Wants You .. but if you're gay, and speak Arabic and have experience in constructing neighborhood health clinics .. get out! See Ian Finkenbinder, Army Arabic linguist.
Next, the Army will be eyeing those 2 million inmates in our national prison system.
From news.yahoo.com:
"WASHINGTON - The Army and Marine Corps are letting in more recruits with criminal records, including some with felony convictions, reflecting the increased pressure of five years of war and its mounting casualties.
According to data compiled by the Defense Department, the number of Army and Marine recruits needing waivers for felonies and serious misdemeanors, including minor drug offenses, has grown since 2003. The Army granted more than double the number of waivers for felonies and misdemeanors in 2006 than it did in 2003. Some recruits may get more than one waiver."
Doesn't this lowering of standards put undue strain on the troops that have met the higher standards .. and may cause their deaths?
I've long thought that this is the reason some of our soldiers are fingered for those horrible atrocities against Iraqi children and civilians. The rape and brutal murder of that 14 y/o girl and her entire family, children included .. sounds like something criminal recruits could do. And then there's the torture done in the Abu Ghraib prison...
But .. I guess the Army has no choice. It has to keep its ranks filled with the soliders it needs to meet worldwide obligations. It can't simply downsize if the ideal labor pool is not available. It's just so sad that it can’t maintain its necessary size without resorting to employing criminals.
The bottom line here is that there is so little support for the way the Army is being used in Iraq .. young men and women just walk on by those recruitment tables. Their parents beg them not to join .. bribe them with money and cars.
I come from a military family and have been around the Army all my life. We need men and women who are smart, motivated and honest -- in other words -- people who had other options in life and still chose the Army.
And yes, I know that our military still has these fine men and women .. just not enough of them.
And I am also aware that a few of these criminal recruits could prove they can make something of themselves .. have a second chance to change for the better and put their past behind them. But what percentage?
These men and women with substantial criminal records, while they may not rise to high ranks of influence in the Army, will probably damage its reputation. And more importantly -- combat effectiveness.
So .. this is a terrible development .. but, we have to sleep in the bed Bush made.
Or do we?
Maybe if Congress called for a draft immediately .. so our Army could have more college graduates, engineers, etc., instead of crooks. It just might awaken the young middle class that this war is going to affect them -- and not just those in need of govt subsidy for a college education.
Personally I would like to see a draft on all eligible men and women whose parents earn more than 200,000 dollars a year .. with no exemptions. Then we might see a change in this administration’s appetite for war instead of diplomacy.
But now I'm just being snarky.
Seriously, a draft would definitely bring the American people out in numbers sufficient to end this madness.
