How low have recruitment standards gone?

Fred Wilson As many may know, the Army has had a very hard time meeting recruiting numbers over the past few years. It seems that when people don’t believe that we should be in Iraq, they don’t sign up or don’t encourage their kids to sign up for military service (surprise!).

Now, to get closer to the numbers they need, the Army has lowered standards for recruits. To allow some recruits in, they have increased the number of “moral waivers” they offer, meaning that more recruits with criminal backgrounds, emotional issues, histories of drug abuse and poor educational backgrounds are now being enlisted into the military.

So, it may come as no surprise that some of those recruits are flaming racists.

Fred Wilson is a proud Ku Klux Klan recruiter. It has been revealed that, despite his very public Klan activities, he is likely headed for the U.S. Army, after being recruited in February 2006.

Wilson was supposed to report to basic training in July 2006 but, had his entry postponed after his involvement in an attack on another Klan leader, which landed him in jail for ten days.

However, if you think this is just an isolated case, consider the following:

The Army has strict regulations against active-duty personnel engaging in “racist extremist” activities and a stated commitment to weeding out hate group members. But as the Intelligence Report reported in a cover story last summer, recruiters and commanders, under heavy pressure to maintain enlistment levels in the midst of an unpopular war, often look the other way when it comes to a recruit or active-duty soldier’s involvement with racist extremism.

The Pentagon’s official response to the report, which detailed whistle-blower allegations of “thousands” of extremists admitted to the Army alone, was to describe it as “inaccurate and misleadingly alarmist.” It shrugged off requests to enforce a “zero tolerance” policy toward racial extremists in the military.

The last thing the tinder box of Iraq needs is racists who would look to kill anyone brown. If you have to scrape the bottom of the barrel like this to come up with recruits, you should reconsider your war policy.

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2 comments for “How low have recruitment standards gone?”

black…MYstory » Bangin’ In Iraq , on the 16 of May, 2007 at 3:02 pm said:
[...] document.write(”"); } )() In a previous post (see: How low have recruitment standards gone?), I shared how the Army is issuing a record number of “moral waivers” to allow recruits [...]
Recruiters continue to lower the bar | black...MYstory , on the 21 of April, 2008 at 3:16 pm said:
[...] a year ago, I posted about the increase in “moral waivers” for military recruits (see here, here and here). What was being seen was that the military was admitting folks in with very sketchy [...]

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black…MYstory » Bangin’ In Iraq , on the 16 of May, 2007 at 3:02 pm said:

[...] document.write(”"); } )() In a previous post (see: How low have recruitment standards gone?), I shared how the Army is issuing a record number of “moral waivers” to allow recruits [...]

Recruiters continue to lower the bar | black...MYstory , on the 21 of April, 2008 at 3:16 pm said:

[...] a year ago, I posted about the increase in “moral waivers” for military recruits (see here, here and here). What was being seen was that the military was admitting folks in with very sketchy [...]