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| Commit a Crime...Get a Gun! http://war.studioshinnyo.com/warforum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3321 |
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| Author: | Christopher Fiss [ Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:13 am ] |
| Post subject: | Commit a Crime...Get a Gun! |
Step 1: Commit a violent crime and go to Jail. Step 2: Live off of the US tax payer's greenbacks for a few years. Step 3: Wait until the Army is hurting for people. Step 4: Enlist. Step 5: Freedom! And they give you a gun for your trouble. Now, I have nothing against people with minor convictions trying to lessen or get out of their sentence by signing up for the army for some brownie points with the system. And they bring up a good point with the convicts entering a strict, controlled system of leadership. Hell, might help some people get their lives back on track. However: Quote: The bulk of the crimes involved were burglaries, other thefts, and drug offenses, but nine involved sex crimes and six involved manslaughter or vehicular homicide convictions. Several dozen Army and Marine recruits had aggravated assault or robbery convictions, including incidents involving weapons. Surely, adding convicted criminals into wartime won't add to the reports of soldiers raping, murdering and pillaging in stressful situations when non-violent volunteers are being implicated in such events. And I'd bet the army and navy troops who want to defend justice, freedom, and the safety of their country will LOVE to be forced to fight along someone who may have raped someone, or ran over someone in a drunken accident by a commander who's looking at his quota. Nothing says trustworthy like jail-time! </rose coloured glasses> Gotta love the recruitment strategy. Go for the young, the poor and the gullible...mistreat the people who actually want to join to serve so fewer than ever would ever actually consider it...and if that doesn't work...go for the people who have to choose between war and not droping the soap. Working great so far. I blame too many bad 1990's sci-fi movies for making the armed forces people believe convicts will save the day. |
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| Author: | Tozetre [ Tue Apr 22, 2008 1:19 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Commit a Crime...Get a Gun! |
On the one hand, I imagine the experience can only improve them. On the other, WTF MARINES? "The few, the proud?" Remember that? |
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| Author: | Christopher Fiss [ Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:44 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Commit a Crime...Get a Gun! |
The Few, The Proud, the Joint.  Though, admittedly, I do agree a bit of service could do certain people well...and I'm sure the commanders don't just throw a dart at the board to determine who they pick. It's just frightening that this could be seen by some people as a "Fix" to the low-recruitment levels. |
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| Author: | Michael J Doyle [ Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:36 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Commit a Crime...Get a Gun! |
I'm not enthused about it, neither. Eighteen or nineteen years of piss-poor parenting and thug life can't be undone by thirteen weeks of Basic. Recruit attrition was still running about 20%, last I heard, with another 5-10% or so failing to complete their enlistments. OTOH, there have been undeniable success stories. (q.v., Rick's Making the Corps describing the transitions of a recruit platoon - of interest was the Alabama skinhead who was sharing a hooch with a DC gang-banger. Funny, they both ended up with more in common with each other than they had with the people they left back on the block). Add in that some of this stuff resulted from what might have been overly agressive prosecutions the article wrote: For example, in several of the Marine sex crime cases, the offender was a teenager involved in consensual sex with another underage teen. In one Army case, a 13-year-old who threw a match into his school locker was charged with arson and had to receive a felony waiver six years later. On the gripping hand, this was the inevitable result of a couple generations of inculcated self-service and parochial contempt for the military services on the part of the rich folks. I'm reminded of Jerry Pournelle's observation about the 1970s : "A nation that despises its soldiers will all too soon find itself with a despicable army." |
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| Author: | Tozetre [ Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:14 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Commit a Crime...Get a Gun! |
Thing is, there's still rich folks that respect the military. My family can be considered wealthy- statistically I guess we are- and we've got nothing but respect for the Canadian military. I'd be serving already if I wasn't too fat. I know a lawyer's son in Calgary that had deep respect for the military as well, though he never joined. I think, really, that it's more about the grab bag of character and upbringing among the rich. The morally lazy will have despicable kids, and the rich can more often afford to be morally lazy- they have so much else they can hang their hat on. |
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| Author: | Michael J Doyle [ Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:52 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Commit a Crime...Get a Gun! |
I don't know about conditions in Canada, but your family and the lawyer's son would be decidedly unusual in the Northeastern US (with the possible exception of Southie). See Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer's AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service - and How It Hurts Our Country Three words: "Code", "Pink", and "Berserkley"... |
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| Author: | Tozetre [ Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:47 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Commit a Crime...Get a Gun! |
Yeah, you got a point. I don't know many other rich folks that even have an interest in serving. |
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| Author: | Michael J Doyle [ Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:13 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Commit a Crime...Get a Gun! |
Follow-up from CNN: Bad conduct gets Army recruits promoted faster, study shows Piss-poor headline. I'd've written something like "Mixed Results: Troops with Prior criminal records either shine or stink..." Interesting stats, though... |
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