tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post6697603909454777752..comments2023-11-03T09:36:22.100-04:00Comments on In From the Cold: Sign Up the Geezers (Almost)George Smileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07049707648660651119noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-7716239509127549952014-07-01T09:02:25.682-04:002014-07-01T09:02:25.682-04:00Sykes: I would say that prior criminal records and...Sykes: I would say that prior criminal records and drug activity does as much as anything to disqualify a number of minority candidates. When one in three young black men are in jail, on probation or parole, that decreases the recruiting pool significantly. Regrettably, Hispanics face many of the same issues, and so do many segments of the white community. <br /><br />But it's not just a demography problem, it's also geography. If you look at where military recruits come from, they hail (disproportionately) from the south and Midwest, two areas that are becoming increasingly disaffected with the U.S. government and its policies. Hound the tea party off the political stage and you'll see fewer of their sons and daughters signing up for military service, and believe me, there's a correlation between military recruiting and areas where the tea party is strongest. <br /><br />Millions of Americans who embrace traditional values are fed up with a government controlled by the elites, the same bunch that "choose" our wars, then recruit the sons and daughters of the middle and working classes to fight them. Between Obama, Boehner, McCarthy, Pelosi, Hoyer Reid and McConnell, not a single one has a family member serving (or who has served recently) in the military. And that's no accident. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712369389411084085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-20510539114467144112014-07-01T06:58:52.518-04:002014-07-01T06:58:52.518-04:00Much of the problem is the test scores. The Army e...Much of the problem is the test scores. The Army effectively requires a minimum IQ of 85, and the minimum for the Navy and Air Force is about 90. The levels are about the black and Mexican averages, respectively, so the tests automatically exclude half of minorities.<br /><br />Since violent crime, drug trafficking and lack of education are also minority monopolies, a substantial majority of the black and Mexican population is ineligible for military service.<br /><br />So the military has to rely on a numerically declining white population, one that has its own physical problems and that is disinclined to serve.<br /><br />The only good news is that our potential adversaries have similar declining service age populations.<br /><br />I guess we're going back to the days of the Indian wars, where a platoon chases Cochise for hundreds of miles of empty prairie.sykes.1https://www.blogger.com/profile/10954672321945289871noreply@blogger.com