The Army and Marines now accepting felons

 

Both the U.S. Army and U.S. Marines now are allowing felons to join the ranks of our military. Over the past few years they both have lowered the minimum requirements to join by accepting those with a history of misdemeanors.

But now, with the pressure to meet and maintain the troop levels of the Army and Marine Corps, both have lowered their standards again, and are new accepting people who have been convicted of burglary, homicide, arson and rape.

The Army and the Marine Corps recruited considerably more felons into their ranks in 2007 than in 2006, according to data released two weeks ago by a House committee.

 

The number of waivers issued to active-duty Army recruits with felony convictions jumped to 511 in 2007, from 249 in 2006. Marine recruits with felony convictions rose to 350 from 208.

Overall, the numbers represent less than 1 percent of the 115,000 new enlistments last year in the active-duty Army and Marine Corps.

While our all-volunteer military has only allowed the best of the best to join in the past, the military is now faced with the reality of two wars, a fighting force that is stretched to the breaking point and absolutely no end in sight. In fact, the future may hold even more war fronts to be opened, such as Iran.

While the number of felons being accepted is low in comparison to the overall number, this trend raises questions about the military’s ability to attract quality recruits at a time when it’s trying to increase enlistment.

 

The Army, which has suffered more dead and wounded than any other branch of the military, faces an especially difficult challenge in attracting qualified men and women.

“It raises concerns,” said U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, who is chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which requested the information on felony waivers from the Department of Defense.

“An increase in the recruitment of individuals with criminal records is a result of the strains put on the military by the Iraq war and may be undermining our military readiness.”

A Defense Dept. spokesman, Air Force Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder, said that dispensations are granted only after a careful review of any applicant’s record and the circumstances surrounding the charge or conviction. The charges often occurred when the recruits were juveniles and were less serious than they appeared initially.

 

Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a Pentagon spokesman, said that “low unemployment, a protracted War on Terror, a decline in propensity to serve,” and the growing reluctance of parents, teachers and other adults to recommend that young people go into the military, have made recruiting a challenge.

According to the Army, 18 percent of its recruits needed conduct waivers in the fiscal year ending last Sept. 30, compared with 15 percent in the previous 12-month period.

“We are growing the Army fast, and there are some waivers; we know that,” said Army Lt. Gen. James D. Thurman, deputy chief of staff for operations. “It hasn’t alarmed us yet.”

 

With the Army and Marines scraping the bottom of the barrel for recruits, and with President George W. Bush’s two wars, and a third possible front in Iran, it is very possible that in the foreseeable future, we will see the Selective Service system, the agency responsible for a military draft, put back into action.

Bush has broken the military, and like all the other things that Bush has broken in our country, it will be the next President who has to fix everything, because the Buck has never stopped at Bush’s desk.

You’ve done a heck of a job, Bushy.