RECRUTEMENT STANDARDS LOWERED

The Sacramento Bee has a great article on the trouble that has been brought about by the lowering of the standards of military recruitment.
The Sacramento Bee, during a yearlong examination, studied the civilian and military backgrounds of 250 military personal, and found that 120 of them had questionable backgrounds, including felonies and serious drug, alcohol on mental health problems.(yup, those are the ones you want to hand a rifle to and let loose in another country.)(and that's just the tip of the ice berg)
Those identified by the Bee are among the tens of thousands of military personnel recruited or retained as the armed services-entering the 6th year of the Iraq war- lowered educational, age and moral standards and granted a growing number of waivers to applicants whose backgrounds would otherwise have barred them from serving.
The percentage of Army recruits receiving so-called moral conduct waivers more than doubled, from 4.6 percent in 2003 to 11.2 percent in 2007. They were able to enlist because they had no official criminal record of arrests or convictions, their records were overlooked or prosecutors suspended charges in lieu of military service-akin to a no-defunct Vietnam-era practice in which judges gave defendants a choice between prison and the military.
"How in the hell can the legally possess a gun?" asked Sheriff D.T. Marshall On Montgomery County, Ala. when questioned about a soldier in his county. That soldier, Eli Gregory, was convicted in an attempted home invasion and of felony theft in Alabama, making him ineligible to legally possess a firearm there. Yet in the military gave him a rifle and sent him to Iraq, where he was convicted by the Army of assault and battery on a fellow soldier and discharged. (I suppose we should be glad he didn't shoot him)
The military defended its recruiting policies, including granting more waivers for past conduct.
"Standards in our society have changed over the year: we are a reflection of those changes," said Douglas Smith, spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command. "(since when did our standards lower to the point that men convicted of rape, assault, home invasion, etc. can be recruited into the military?)Considering offering a waiver to otherwise qualified recruits is the right thing to do for those Americans who want to answer the call to duty."(call to duty?....call to fucking duty?...you dumb shit..)
This month the Department of Defense announced a new system to categorize waivers by the severity of prior offenses to allow the services to analyze the link between waivers and future military behavior.
Judas fucking priest...if that's not enough to piss off, even the Pope, I'll kiss your ass..Lets see, he offered reefer to a 14-year old for a blow job, oh yea, he gets a waiver. He beats the shit out of his wife, yup, give him a waiver. Now give those assholes a gun, turn them loose and tell them to shoot the bad guys..Hell...everyone he saw would be a bad guy. They are social misfits, they hate everyone including themselves..they shouldn't be trusted with a paring knife and yet they give them a gun and send them to Iraq. Fuck no wonder those people hate us...We're sending criminals over there to keep them in check..
Now before everyone gets pissed at me..no all soldiers aren't misfits, but these guys are and they have no business over there or even in the military. They give the good, honorable and brave soldiers a bad name. Thanks Uncle Sam....we owe you one...

Randal Ruby
DOB: 5/2/67.
JOINED: Army, in 1985.
BEFORE DEPLOYMENT TO IRAQ: Wanted in Maine for criminal speeding, evading officers and drunken driving related to a 1997 high-speed chase ending in a crash. Accused in three attacks on his wife in two states. Officers respond in fourth case to a 911 call and find Ruby drunk and bleeding from his mouth. Files for bankruptcy protection in 1997.
IN IRAQ: Charged with several 2006 offenses related to detainee beatings and holding captured weapons to plant on bodies of innocent civilians. Found guilty only of disrespect of
superior officer.

DELANO V. HOLMES, DOB 9/5/85.
Joined Marine Corps Reserves 2004. PRE-SERVICE: Ambulance called 2002 after high school teacher heard him threaten suicide. Arrested 2003 disorderly conduct/banned from mall and later arrested same day for trespassing. Accused 2004 punching man who sold him car.
IN SERVICE/PRE-IRAQ: Found with others in vehicle smelling of marijuana smoke and containing drug paraphernalia and drug residue in 2006. Same year failed drug test for Marines preparing to deploy to Iraq. IN IRAQ: Charged unpremeditated murder/ stabbing Iraqi soldier 17 times. Guilty of negligent homicide at court-martial in California.

DOB: 4/24/77. JOINED: Michigan National Guard, in 2003; Army Reserve, in 2005.
PRE-MILITARY: Discharged from Air Force for drunken driving. He is convicted twice and arrested four times on felony charges, once for allegedly giving a 13-year-old girl marijuana in exchange for oral sex. Serves time in state and federal prisons.
IN IRAQ: Found guilty at court-martial of stealing pistol from translator working at Abu Ghraib and of fraudulent enlistment.