The Dirty One Thousand Eight Hundred Twenty-Three Dozen

On the heels of an announcement that the National Guard has decided to meet its recruitment goals by, uh, lowering those goals, Salon releases a story about close to 22,000 new recruits admitted under waivers which allow otherwise ineligible people to take a holiday in the sand.

Under Air National Guard rules, the dealer had committed a "major offense" that would bar him from military service. Air National Guard recruits, like other members of the military, cannot have drug convictions on their record. But on Feb. 2, 2005, the applicant who had been arrested in the mini-mall was admitted into the Delaware Air National Guard. How? Through the use of a little-known, but increasingly important, escape clause known as a waiver. Waivers, which are generally approved at the Pentagon, allow recruiters to sign up men and women who otherwise would be ineligible for service because of legal convictions, medical problems or other reasons preventing them from meeting minimum standards. (. . .)

According to statistics provided to Salon by the office of the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, the Army said that 17 percent (21,880 new soldiers) of its 2005 recruits were admitted under waivers. Put another way, more soldiers than are in an entire infantry division entered the Army in 2005 without meeting normal standards. This use of waivers represents a 42 percent increase since the pre-Iraq year of 2000. (All annual figures used in this article are based on the government's fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. So fiscal year 2006 began Oct. 1, 2005.)

In fact, even the already high rate of 17 percent underestimates the use of waivers, as the Pentagon combined the Army's figures with the lower ones for reserve forces to dilute the apparent percentage. Equally significant is the Army's currently liberal use of "moral waivers," which are issued to recruits who have committed what are loosely defined as criminal offenses. Officially, the Pentagon states that most waivers issued on moral grounds are for minor infractions like traffic tickets. Yet documents obtained by Salon show that many of the offenses are more serious and include drunken driving and domestic abuse.

I say if a man can get a DWI and become the commander in chief of the armed forces, then why can't a man with a DWI get his ass blown off in Tikrit?!?

I'll also take a moment to comment on one of my biggest annoyances about the general state of things. Police, teachers, soldiers. These are jobs of such importance to society that you want the best people you can find filling the positions. But when the requirements and wages are low, and the benefits dubious, you're going to get two pools of applicants-- committed patriots and total duds. No free marketeer is going to settle for one of these roles when the brass ring is calling.