Good News for Rumsfeld:WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Army is ending its best recruiting year since 1997 and expecting similar success in 2007, despite the weight of grim war news from Iraq, Army Secretary Francis Harvey said Thursday.Bad News for Everyone Else:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Army this year began allowing people as old as 42 to enter the service; the maximum age previously was 35.Analysis:
The Army also has accepted a larger number of recruits whose score on a standardized aptitude test is at the lower end of the acceptable range, and it has granted waivers to permit the enlistment of people with criminal records that otherwise would disqualify them.
Let's recall the logic for the Army's recruiting strategy.
(1) We don't recruit older people because its disruptive to the work force (read: hurts the economy) and families with children (I think this incorporates "family values").
(2) We target highly intelligent people because we have all this high-end technology (you remember Rummy's efficiency strategy for the army?) and not just anyone can learn it.
(3) We don't recruit criminals. This is probably straight forward. But if you are handing someone a gun, you probably want a high probability they won't use their peers as target practice.
Finally, in all seriousness, I cannot express the gratitude I have for people in the military. This post is not in the least critical of the people in the military - the criticism is for Rumsfeld, Cheney, and the Decider.
Simply put - We are now dealing with the long-term impacts of the tragic combination of epic ineptitude and hubris.
The fact that disrupting the economy, breaking up families, lowering the skills, and adding criminals to the army is all better than letting in gays (without criminal records, intelligent, no children, in their 20s) - baffles me to no end....
8 comments:
Angry Recruit: "When do we get the freakin' guns?"
Chief Wiggum: "I told you, you don't get a gun until you tell me your name."
Angry Recruit: "Pfft! I've had it up to here with your 'rules'!"
Even when the military had high standards, a few bad apples got through (Timothy McVeigh, the DC Sniper, the Abu Ghraib crew, etc). I hate to think how many baddies are now going to have top-notch military training.
Lee Harvey Oswald
"Lee Harvey. Youuuuuuu are a wild man. That time you stole that cow, and your friend tried to make it with the cow? We gotta party together sometime. You and me together? Forget it."
And it all comes full circle, back to Sgt. Hulka's Big Toe.
Not mentioned are the highest-ever money incentives being used to recruit and retain military members. It's adding up to major money, especially considering that manpower costs have about doubled in a decade.
Not to worry, though. Looking ahead a couple of years, the military is laying plans now for substantial force reductions. Given the nature of current threats, this fits perfectly with Don Rumsfeld's "find and do the exact wrong thing" management approach.
Here's the capper to this stupidity. Between now and the big force reductions, expect the economy to slide into a recession. We're due any time now.
So, with the terrorist threat unabated, with other troublesome nations threatening, the Pentagon will dump trained, better-qualified, more-experienced people into a shriveling jobs market. At the same time, the military will hold on to older, less-qualified and less experienced rookies.
Perfect parting gesture for Bush, Cheney and Rummy, wouldn't you say?
HARTMAN: Do any of you people know who Charles Whitman was? None of you dumbasses knows? Private Cowboy?
COWBOY: Sir, he was that guy who shot all those people from that tower in Austin, Texas, sir!
HARTMAN: That's affirmative. Charles Whitman killed twelve people from a twenty-eight-storey observation tower at the University of Texas from distances up to four hundred yards. Anybody know who Lee Harvey Oswald was? Private Snowball?
SNOWBALL: Sir, he shot Kennedy, sir!
HARTMAN: That's right, and do you know how far away he was?
SNOWBALL: Sir, it was pretty far! From that book suppository building, sir!
HARTMAN: All right, knock it off! Two hundred and fifty feet! He was two hundred and fifty feet away and shooting at a moving target. Oswald got off three rounds with an old Italian bolt action rifle in only six seconds and scored two hits, including a head shot! Do any of you people know where these individuals learned to shoot? Private Joker?
JOKER: Sir, in the Marines, sir!
HARTMAN: In the Marines! Outstanding! Those individuals showed what one motivated marine and his rifle can do! And before you ladies leave my island, you will be able to do the same thing!
Hitler.
Game, set, match - Austrian WWI military.
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