The 'Dirty Dozen,' a thousand times over

by David Grand
October 24, 2007

I know that comparing the 12,000 or so recruits who've been issued "moral character waivers"  by the Army in fiscal year 2007 to the twelve American soldiers portrayed in that 1967 action-war film sounds far-fetched.

But while one is fiction and the other reality, they both reveal the desperate measures the Army will employ to fulfill an assigned mission, by calling upon those who would otherwise be unfit to serve.

Those in the movie, who were serving either lengthy prison terms or on death row in WW 11, had nothing to lose by going on that suicide mission. They were, however, promised that their sentences could be reduced if they survived--only two did.

By contrast, those who volunteered to join today's undermanned Army, who had  criminal records or a history of emotional problems, had everything to gain by receiving moral waivers. In 2007, a 11.2 percent received them, a sharp increase from the 7.9 percent given in 2006 and the 4.6 percent in 2003. But the Army doesn't grant waivers to those who committed violent sex crimes, engaged in drug-trafficking or on probation or parole. Nice to know they draw the line somewhere.

Unlike the Dirty Dozen, what motivated those young men (who were hardly the cream of the crop of today's youth) was, I believe, due in large part to the $20,000 they'd receive, and less risky than by robbing someone, burglarizing a home or peddling drugs on street corners.

And they had the added incentive of knowing that, if they aren't killed in the war, they'll be called heroes and reap all the benefits of the G. I. bill, plus a whopping $40,000 for re-enlisting. As the Godfather said, that's an offer they couldn't refuse.

Now I'm sure there are those who are honestly motivated by patriotic reasons to serve their country. Timothy McVeigh, who had no prior criminal record or apparent mental problems, was one of 'em. He later credited the Army with having "properly trained and hardened me." But the Army didn't make him the wacko he later became.

But the same can't be said of Private Steven Green, a 19-year-old Texas high-school dropout, who along with four other soldiers in March 2006 stalked, gang-raped and murdered a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, slaughtered the family and burned the bodies.

He was accepted by the Army under a moral waiver, despite three convictions: assault, plus alcohol and drug possession. And three months before that atrocity, an Army Combat Stress Team in Iraq had diagnosed him as a "homicidal threat."

When he then sought psychiatric help, pleading that he was so angry about the war and his friends' deaths that he "felt driven to kill Iraqis," they told him  to get some sleep. The next day he was sent back to active duty in the "Triangle of Death," which set the stage for the bloody massacre of innocent civilians.

To end on a less serious note, last week the three military branches inadvertently advertised for recruits on a web site called GLEE, which stands for Gay, Lesbian & Everyone Else. It wasn't until USA TODAY tipped them off that the ads were removed. Not surprisingly, they'd received no responses before then.