Uncle Sam wants YOU, aspiring Nazi!

The inability to the armed forces to meet recruiting goals has led to a number of rule-bending (and just plain breaking) practices-- targeting underage kids, turning a blind eye to criminal records and helping recruits beat drug tests. The Southern Poverty Law Center has found another one: militant white supremacists signing up for duty in the Middle East.

A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist and right-wing militia groups, estimated that the numbers could run into the thousands, citing interviews with Defense Department investigators and reports and postings on racist Web sites and magazines.

"We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," the group quoted a Defense Department investigator as saying in a report to be posted today on its Web site, www.splencter.org. "That's a problem."