And rising recruitment shores up your arguement how?

Just so, Carrick. I dropped out of highschool, enlisted in US Army and got my GED, recieved around 200 hours in professional development courses and 60 hours of course time from OSU, meteorology data collection and interpretation. It was in ’83 that DoD changed the educational requirments, I believe. Many troops I knew got alot of education, both technical and academic, while on active duty. Hell, most job skills required in 13Bravo(Feild Artillery) are quite technical. Most MOSs are non-Combat Arms and by their very nature highly technical. IQ is not just a piece of paper from a school.

Instead of correctly reporting this, the media has chosen to shout that the military lowered their standards and is only meeting it’s goals by hiring rejects.

Doc: I’ve heard estimates of from 30-50K, but I’d say put another 5-10K in Baghdad and see if that cuts down on the violence. If that works start expanding to the rest of the country.

Is it true or not Guttermouth and Sluggo? did they lower IQ standards and offer substantially larger bonuses to recruit? yes, or no.

Rob, I love how our goals in Iraq are a moving target. I thought we were in the last throes of the insurgency, now you say the violence will last for years, Does Cheney know this?

And we also increased the signing bonuses substantially as well as lowering the intelligence quotient for enlistees.

I guess that means you will now be able to enlist, Puzzle.

The point leftards skip over is that enlistment age was raised because there have been increasing numbers of people in that age bracket that have filed for waivers in order to enlist. I was turned down in 2002, partially because of age, and because of pre-exsiting medical condition. I personnally know 6 soldiers over the age of 50, one is 57 and serving as a Master SGT in an Armored Cavalry Scout company. Doing his 3rd tour in the sandbox, and he volunteered to go for #3.

Yes, greg. By expanding our military footprint in Iraq we will be effectively taking over the country, in essence making it our property. So who you going to kill off? Everybody? Or just the non-Christians? Because you are going to have to kill off at least 80% of the population to secure your new colony. Otherwise it will turn into a meatgrinder. Iraq has an estimated population of 25 million. To subjugate that many people without killing them you will have to commit at least 40 million troops, permanently. Are you ready to do that?
Or do you want to get a government, police, and military established in Iraq, by Iraqis, for Iraqis? A representative republic with stable laws, an educational system, and industries with which to sustain their economy and bring a modicum of prosperity and personal freedom to a population that has historically been held down by one repressive regime after the other, for the majority of recorded human history?
Choose.

And greg, how many troops are deployed in active combat, right now, and how many troops total do we have in service? How many in Germany, England, Japan, and Korea? How many in stateside billots? And the deal breaker, how many in Kosovo,Bosnia/Herzegovina, and Croatia? Why are we stretched thin?

Puzzle,

It is not hard to qualify to be an 11B (Army Infantry for you civies out there), you have to have the equivalent of a high school diploma. That is where they have lowered the ‘IQ’. Where you once had to have a high school diploma in order to enlist, you can now qualify with a GED. I guess universities also today take people with lower IQ’s, because they also accept GED’s.

What has led to the greater enlistment numbers, as has already been mentioned, is the raising of the enlistment age. When they raised it I signed up. I was 36 (now 37).

Before you begin to belittle your political opposition, and the soldiers as being ‘dumb hicks’, you should take the ASVAB and see how you score. You might find that the ‘dunb hicks’ are actually a lot smarter than you thought (or you are dumber than you thought).

Of course, you can always claim that since you are a Secular Progressive, and therefore, smarter by definition, that you don’t have to prove anything. You are just smarter than the rest of us. (after all, you are intellectually superior because of your ideology ..right?)

I am in the military. You are the one who so insistently points out that the military is lowerin their IQ standards. In doing so, you repeat the implication the article makes, that the military can only recruit those who are stupid, old or poor. I find it highly condescending and misleading. (who cares about the truth when there are political points to be scored). I would say that love of country is the case.

Is it so hard for you to believe that there are those who want to fight for their nation and it’s citizens? You might be filled with self-loatig and blame yourself for all the world’s ills, but not those who sign up. We, who do enlist, put our integrity where our mouth is. We don’t bitch from the sidelines, we actually get involved.

When was the last time you did anything to combat the threat of the global jihad movement? Or are you one of those who blame the US, and Imperialism (a convienient excuse for self-loating), because they can’t admit that some primitive pre-capitalist culture, (a superior culture as defined by Secular Progressives and their Marxist religion), would want to kill us.

This is how the Marxist tainted brain, rationalizes its self-loathing:
“We brought it on ourselves, because primitive people are peaceful people. It is only because of the alienation brought on by capitalist and imperialist policies that they lash out.” Of course it’s not their fault, it’s ours.

And puzzledfuck, the military now accepts recruits with GEDs. How is that lowering IQ standards? Have you taken the current GED test? Could you pass the current GED test? Your union has fought to stop restrictions for hiring based on highschool equivalency testing. Is that not a lowering of IQ standards?

And puzzledfuck stumbles through. Why are none of us surprised?

greg, why are you playing word games? Just come right out and say what you mean.

Why do you falsely claim that the citizens are supporting the war by claiming that the recruiting numbrs are up. At least be intellectually honest that there are other reasons why people join the military.

I didn’t say citizens are supporting the war, I said the soldiers on the ground are.

And they do, undeniably.

And I’m not angry, I am smirking at how you have to scramble to obfuscate and mislead when anyone suggests that the Dem./media talking points are wrong.

Is it true or not Guttermouth and Sluggo? did they lower IQ standards and offer substantially larger bonuses to recruit? yes, or no.

Why does it matter to you, Puzzle? Oh, right. Smear the military as being a bunch of ignorant rednecks just looking for a paycheck.

Nice going.

Rob, I love how our goals in Iraq are a moving target.

Establishing a representative government in Iraq and leaving it capable of defending itself has always been our goal from day one. It has never changed.

You’re either ignorant or lying. Take your pick.

Just cause a kid is a discipline problem does not mean they are dumb. Just the opposite. Many problem kids are highly intelligent, that is the problem very often.

Oh, I’m not saying that problem kids are dumb. My dad ended up in Vietnam after he got into some trouble in college (something about a couple of missing cars and a burned stairwell).

My point was that the military is a positive influence on kids who tend to be underachievers.

2h9, let’s tone down the name-calling alright?

Though good point about Puzzle’s unions. I’m still waiting for her to apologize to Sluggo, you and other military members/vets for implying that the military has to fill its quotas by recruiting stupid people.