Broke Back Army

By Larry C. Johnson (bio below)

Commander in Chief George W. Bush is firmly planted in fantasyland (or is it denial) when he claimed in his State of the Union speech that:

We’re transforming our military. The things I look for are the following: morale, retention, and recruitment. And retention is high, recruitment is meeting goals, and people are feeling strong about the mission.

He’s right about one thing; he certainly is transforming the Army. He is doing to the Army what Katrina did to New Orleans. The headlines in the last two months just begin to tell the story:

The Army is accepting more high school dropouts and Category IV recruits — those who make the lowest acceptable scores on the military’s entrance exam – then ever before. …

The Army met its recruiting goal for November by again accepting a high percentage of recruits who scored in the lowest category on the military’s aptitude tests, . . .The Army had brought in 4 percent from Category IV – or about 2,900 of its 73,000 recruits – for the 2005 recruiting year, which ended Sept. 30. In 2004, the Army accepted 440 soldiers from the lowest category, or about 0.6 percent of 70,000 recruits. Despite the increase in lowest-scoring recruits, the Army was about 7,000 recruits short of its goal of 80,000 recruits for 2005. (Baltimore Sun, December 16, 2005, Tom Bowman).

The Army is allowing more soldiers with criminal records and other behavioral problems into the ranks.

According to statistics provided to Salon by the office of the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, the Army said that 17 percent (21,880 new soldiers) of its 2005 recruits were admitted under waivers. Put another way, more soldiers than are in an entire infantry division entered the Army in 2005 without meeting normal standards. This use of waivers represents a 42 percent increase since the pre-Iraq year of 2000. (All annual figures used in this article are based on the government’s fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. so fiscal year 2006 began Oct. 1, 2005.) (Salon, Out of jail, into the Army, by Mark Benjamin, )

The Army has raised the age limit for new recruits from 35 to 42. (January 26, 2006, Thursday, Army Reaching Breaking Point, Experts Warn, Knight Ridder)

continued below …

The Army is keeping low quality officers on duty.

Struggling to retain enough officers to lead its forces, the Army has begun to dramatically increase the number of soldiers it promotes, . . .Last year, the Army promoted 97% of all eligible captains to the rank of major, Pentagon data show. That was up from a historical average of 70% to 80%. Traditionally, the Army has used the step to major as a winnowing point to push lower-performing soldiers out of the military. (THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ; Army’s Rising Promotion Rate Called Ominous; by Mark Mazzetti, Los Angeles Times, January 30, 2006 )

The all volunteer Army’s unofficial slogan used to be, “quality is job one”. The professionalism and strong character the Army achieved, as it rebuilt itself from the damage inflicted during the Vietnam War, is now being undermined. The damage is not necessarily permanent but the trend is going the wrong way. We are now in the midst of an unofficially unrecognized crisis. Our military and political leaders are looking the other way as the military is polluted with the poorly educated, the immoral, and the incompetent. We have been warned in very clear terms, most recently by Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer, who reported the looming danger in a recent report to Don Rumsfeld. And George Bush says things are swell. Yeah, just like New Orleans.

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Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism (as a Deputy Director), is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management. Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world. Further bio details.