Uncle Sugar Lowers the Bar Again

Remember some of the guys you went through basic training with, usually the ones that were slotted to become truck drivers. Remember how you marveled that there were really people like that left in the world. That was when the Army actually had standards. Sure, you'd get the occasional private that didn't have a trigger finger or, my personal favorite, the guys that couldn't close their non-firing eyes without 100-mph tape over their glasses. However since we've been fighting the War on Terra (tm), the Army has been forced to lower standards regarding drug abuse, gang affiliation, age, weight, and "behavioral problems". Supposedly that fixed our recruiting problems. Not so fast big chief, a new story out today suggests that the Army may again lower the standards. Uh... No, seriously. Who's left? What kind of basic training class would that look like? How frustrated must drill sergeants be with the ever lowering standards. I'm sure we'll move from running at 3AM to talking about running at 7 AM. I know someone that can give a great class on Pronation and Supination! He's probably available too. More classes, less training. Can't do training with so many sub-standard sandbaggers, you can't have unit cohesiveness. Remember being told you're only as good as the weakest link? And the weakest link got the blanket party in order to reinforce not being the weakest link? Who the hell is going to do that now? While it serves a short term goal to lower the standards in order to "recruit" for a volunteer army, the long term repercussions are severe both for the institution of the Army itself, as well as for the civilian populace. Training gang members in urban warfare is probably not the best idea. Giving folks with "behavioral problems" a loaded weapon and a license to use it.... I can't imagine being in the regular Army today, I'd pull my hair out. I may not have been the most gung ho, I think Hondo has a picture of me sleeping in the BLRC (or the LTF as I renamed it to piss off the Col.), but I did adhere to the standards. When the system becomes one where the exception becomes the rule, in this case the exceptions being waivers for everything under the sun, the system breaks down. Can't wait to see how this plays out.