Editorial: Army asking for problems

Saturday, Dec. 1, 2007 | 7 a.m.

The head of the Army's training command made news in March when he said most young people today are not qualified to join the service.

"Only 27 percent of the young people ages 17 to 24 actually qualify to be in your Army," Gen. William Wallace said. "The other 73 percent are disqualified either morally, intellectually or physically."

Wallace based his alarming statement on national surveys of enlistment-age youths conducted by Army researchers.

His words were particularly newsworthy because in January President Bush had announced a plan for enlarging the Army by 65,000 soldiers.

Wallace's statement underscored how difficult it would be for that ambitious plan to meet with success. Nevertheless the Pentagon, with congressional authorization, adopted the plan and even accelerated the deadline from 2012 to 2010.

October was the first month of the plan and the Pentagon two weeks ago announced what sounded like encouraging news: The enlistment goal for the month had been met.

An analysis by The Boston Globe, however, revealed a disturbing aspect - many of the new recruits have criminal records, addiction problems and health issues.

At least one of every five of the October recruits needed a special waiver from a senior officer before he could join, the newspaper found.

The Globe reported that the statistics follow a trend that began with the Iraq war - a lessening of Army standards to fill the ranks.

"Moral character" waivers are not granted for people with multiple felonies or a single felony classified by the Army as "serious," such as rape or murder. But they are being granted to people with a single felony such as burglary, arson and assault.

Waivers are also being granted to those whose backgrounds include drug and alcohol abuse and to those who do not meet military fitness standards.

The Army claims each recruit getting a waiver is carefully screened to ensure he has changed, or that any health problems will not be detrimental to the recruit or the service.

But we find it hard to believe that in the rush to enlist thousands of soldiers, recruiters and their supervisors always have the time or qualifications for that evaluation duty.

The Army owes it to all its soldiers to maintain recruitment standards. A soldier can get killed or hurt if members of his squad are derelict in their responsibilities. And the citizens of countries where soldiers are sent deserve a professional U.S. military, not a force in which one in five needed a waiver to join.