A while ago I did a diary on Bush's plan, and some democrats agreeing with him, on increasing troop levels in the military. And how John Edwards, along with many experts, didn't think that was such a hot idea without a clear understanding of how they would be needed after an Iraq withdrawal.
Whether you agree with that or not, we can all agree that Bush and the Pentagon's methods for increasing numbers are pretty screwed up. All for the sake of getting in more warm bodies for future wars, Bush is letting just about anybody join now and our military is bound to suffer for it.
Combined with the ongoing and neverending "surge" in Iraq, our fearless Commander-in-Chief, who's been telling us all that War really does equal Peace, who couldn't quite make it for his own national guard duties, seems determined to break our military.
More over the fold.
I imagine a lot of people have heard or read of some of this, but putting it all together, it just boggles the mind. People can debate about whether Bush is just evil or incompetent, for me he is just incompetently evil. And just like our brave men and women coming home from Iraq with physical and psychic injuries that will never heal (and aren't being adequately treated), our military will be paying for his mistakes long after Iraq.
Criminals and gang members in the military
When you can't find good people to join the military because of a failed war, well its time to get creative. Criminal record? Not a problem in the Bush military:
Nearly 12 percent of Army recruits who entered basic training this year needed a special waiver for those with criminal records, a dramatic increase over last year and 2 1/2 times the percentage four years ago, according to new Army statistics obtained by the Globe.
With less than three months left in the fiscal year, 11.6 percent of new active-duty and Army Reserve troops in 2007 have received a so-called "moral waiver," up from 7.9 percent in fiscal year 2006, according to figures from the US Army Recruiting Command. In fiscal 2003 and 2004, soldiers granted waivers accounted for 4.6 percent of new recruits; in 2005, it was 6.2 percent.
"Moral waiver"; you've got to love that. Of course, allowing former convicts in the military isn't necesarily a bad thing per se. For those with non-violent criminal convictions, it could be good given the lack of job opportunities and stigma for those with criminal records. But with the stats in the article showing a huge rise from previous years, it sure doesn't seem like a lot of selective sorting is going on.
it gets much worse though, read on.
And gang members too.
These new recruiting strategies aren't limted to convicted criminals, but gang members as well:
Law enforcement officials report that the military is now "allowing more applicants with gang tattoos," the Chicago Sun-Times reports, "because they are under the gun to keep enlistment up." They also note that "gang activity maybe rising among soldiers." The paper was provided with "photos of military buildings and equipment in Iraq that were vandalized with graffiti of gangs based in Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities."
But not if you are gay...
Ironically, while more former convicts and gang members are signing up in droves - Don't Ask, Don't Tell continues to be the status quo. Gays aren't allowed to join and those who have the audacity to actually want to serve their country are kicked out, including in some of the most crtiical speciality areas:
More than 11,000 gays have been forced out of the military by the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, including 58 Arabic linguists and hundreds of others with critically needed skills.
The war on culture seems to have higher priority than the war on terror doesn't it? One more example of how right Edwards is Bush's GWOT.
And did you know the war was over?
And its not just limited to who they are letting in (and keeping out and kicking out), but look at how they are getting people in:
like misleading students, even telling them the war was over:
An ABC News undercover investigation showed Army recruiters telling students that the war in Iraq was over, in an effort to get them to enlist.
ABC News and New York affiliate WABC equipped students with hidden video cameras before they visited 10 Army recruitment offices in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
"Nobody is going over to Iraq anymore?" one student asks a recruiter.
"No, we're bringing people back," he replies.
"We're not at war. War ended a long time ago," another recruiter says.
Pretty amazing stuff and it gets worse:
Yet ABC News found one recruiter who even claimed if you didn't like the Army, you could just quit.
"It's called a 'Failure to Adapt' discharge," the recruiter said. "It's an entry-level discharge so it won't affect anything on your record. It'll just be like it never happened."
And maybe we've found one more reason Bush likes the idea of immigration reform - fresh recuits. Even without immigration reform there is still a large untapped market that will soon be focused on:
It is a little-known fact, however, that the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 amended current legal statutes by allowing military service secretaries to waive citizenship and residency requirements "if such Secretary determines that the enlistment of such person is vital to the national interest" (U.S. Code Title 10, Chapter 31, §504: 2006).
snip
If the Pentagon were to decide to exercise its new prerogative and begin to recruit undocumented youth in order to grow the Army and Marines, the most obvious selling point would be permanent residency and eventual citizenship. This in fact is one of the little-known aspects of the DREAM Act, legislation that would grant conditional residency to most undocumented high school graduates and permanent residency in exchange for the successful completion of two years of college or two years of military service.
In his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on July 10, 2006, Under Secretary of Defense David Chu said: "According to an April 2006 study from the National Immigration Law Center, there are an estimated 50,000 to 65,000 undocumented alien young adults who entered the U.S. at an early age and graduate from high school each year, many of whom are bright, energetic and potentially interested in military service...Provisions of S. 2611, such as the DREAM Act, would provide these young people the opportunity of serving the United States in uniform."
Yet its not working
And yet despite all the tactics mentioned above and incresed economic incentives and lower standards
•A maximum of $40,000 for Army recruits, which is double the previous $20,000 recruit bonus.
•An extra $1,000 bonus for high school seniors who join.
•A $2,000 referral bonus for soldiers and retirees who persuade friends or relatives to join. That's double the previous $1,000 bonus.
The Army also raised the age limit for recruits from 34 to 41. In October 2005, the Army also started taking more recruits who scored in the lowest brackets of the service's aptitude test, doubling the percentage of those recruits from 2% to 4%. The Army had the 2% limit since the 1980s.
the Army and Marines still aren't meeting their recruitment goals and more and more in the armed forces aren't staying in.
So are you pumped now for our army of the future? But hey, we'll have more troops and thats a good thing right?