Lawmaker: Recruiting criminals unwise

Lawmaker: Recruiting criminals unwise
By William Matthews - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Nov 8, 2007 17:33:14 EST

Congress has passed legislation to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps, but the military may have trouble filling those newly created ranks, said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif.

In remarks to defense reporters Thursday, Tauscher said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made the military so unattractive that “moms and dads and spouses have voted with their feet,” urging current military members to get out of uniform and discouraging young people from joining in the first place.

Tauscher, chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces, said members of Congress “are enormously concerned” that the policies of President Bush have left the military undermanned, under-equipped and so overworked that “we cannot continue to rely on the fact that we can recruit and retain the best people in the world. We have had to lower our standards.”

To fill their ranks, the services have begun accepting recruits with criminal records, she said.

“I’m all for rehab and giving people a second chance, but that’s not why we’re doing this. This is about the fact that we need people with pulses that are willing to come into the military,” Tauscher said.

The practice may be damaging to the force. In a high-tech military, “trainability and willingness to be trained” are essential, she said. “If you have — as the nuns used to say — comportment issues, if you can’t sit quietly and listen, if you can’t be trained and if you have a predilection to pilfering — or bigger things — you’re going to be a decrement to your unit.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/military_criminals_071108w/



uhc comment: Ouch!