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May 03, 2005
Be All the Forger You Can Be
A reader comments about the claims about Lynndie England's mental capacities and wonders "If she has severe learning disabilities and mental health problems, why was she allowed to wear a uniform and represent the U.S. in a combat theatre?"
Maybe this is how:
So how far will army recruiters go to get those numbers up?One Colorado high school honors student wanted to find out. 17-year-old David McSwane says he told a recruiting officer he was a high-school drop out. No problem! He says he was told to print out a fake-diploma. Then he told them he had a problem with marijuana. McSwane says the recruiter suggested he purchase a detox kit.
Or like this:
It was late September when the 21-year-old man, fresh from a three-week commitment in a psychiatric ward, showed up at an Army recruiting station in southern Ohio. The two recruiters there wasted no time signing him up, and even after the man's parents told them he had bipolar disorder - a diagnosis that would disqualify him - he was all set to be shipped to boot camp, and perhaps Iraq after that, before senior officers found out and canceled the enlistment. Despite an Army investigation, the recruiters were not punished and were still working in the area late last month.Two hundred miles away, in northern Ohio, another recruiter said the incident hardly surprised him. He has been bending or breaking enlistment rules for months, he said, hiding police records and medical histories of potential recruits. His commanders have encouraged such deception, he said, because they know there is no other way to meet the Army's stiff recruitment quotas.
And, consider this:
The recruiter, who has fought in several conflicts including the current war in Iraq, said one in every three people he had enlisted had a problem that needed concealing, or a waiver. "The only people who want to join the Army now have issues," he said. "They're troubled, with health, police or drug problems."
Posted by zeynep at May 3, 2005 08:05 PM
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