The U.S. Army Gets More Stupider

!@#$%! · 01.23.2008, 01:13 AM

let's see if this gets more coverage than dead actors (ha ha yeah right).

----

Army Off Target on Recruits
Percentage of High School Graduates Drops to New Low
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 23, 2008; A02

The percentage of new recruits entering the Army with a high school diploma dropped to a new low in 2007, according to a study released yesterday, and Army officials confirmed that they have lowered their standards to meet high recruiting goals in the middle of two ongoing wars.

The study by the National Priorities Project concluded that slightly more than 70 percent of new recruits joining the active-duty Army last year had a high school diploma, nearly 20 percentage points lower than the Army's goal of at least 90 percent.

The National Priorities Project, a Massachusetts-based research group that examines the impact of federal budget policies and has been outspoken against the Iraq war, said the number of high school graduates among new recruits fell from 83.5 percent in 2005 to 70.7 percent last year.

"The trend is clear," said Anita Dancs, the project's research director, who based the report on Defense Department data released via the Freedom of Information Act. "They're missing their benchmarks, and I think it's strongly linked to the impact [of] the Iraq war."

The study also found that the number of "high quality" recruits -- those with both a high school diploma and a score in the upper half on the military's qualification test -- has dropped more than 15 percent from 2004 to 2007. After linking the recruiting data to Zip codes and median incomes, it found that low- and middle-income families are supplying far more Army recruits than families with incomes greater than $60,000 a year.

continue

atari 2600 · 01.23.2008, 01:17 AM

I had a friend who joined the Army in the eighties. Get this, he didn't have a high school diploma, so they *wink*wink* sent him to this "school" to take an equivalency test and basically it's this twenty-minute test and you get a diploma in exchange for two hundred-fifty dollars. My friend reported that the test questions were on about the junior high level.

m1rr0r dash · 01.23.2008, 03:01 AM

I.F. Stone said it a long time ago:

"We Americans have lived in a country that's been very succesful technologically... and we instinctively think that every problem must have a technological solution. The atom bomb was supposed to be a perfect weapon. The atom bomb gave us nuclear superiority for quite a while. And please notice that in that period of nuclear superiority, was the first time America had ever been kicked around and lost a war to some little 2x5 country across the Pacific. And the Russians today in Afghanistan, with all their nuclear superiority... what good does it do them? The wonder working weapon has to work. We're starving education, the recruits are getting dumber, and the weapons are getting more and more complicated. How the hell you gonna run them?"

sonicl · 01.23.2008, 05:39 AM

Is the terrible grammatical error in the thread title deliberate?

!@#$%! · 01.23.2008, 06:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonicl

Is the terrible grammatical error in the thread title deliberate?

boys go to jupiter (where but in this board?)

plus the obvious irony

or

uuuhhhh??? wat gramamamtical error???

gmku · 01.23.2008, 07:26 AM

What's even worse, the Army is recruiting from urban gangs. It's become a big training camp for gangsters. I know Army drill sergeants here who talk about all these tough kids with tattoos up their necks, and they wonder who let them in, and some of these drill sergeants, a tough bunch, are actually afraid of these fuckers.

gualbert · 01.23.2008, 07:27 AM

What's the point of having a diploma in the army , where people shoot at targets , run in the mud , climb ropes , to sum things up , do what they're told? Eh?

gmku · 01.23.2008, 07:29 AM

Yeah, it is kind of counterintuitive. Still, you want sort of smarter people behind those triggers, don't you?

m1rr0r dash · 01.23.2008, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gualbert

What's the point of having a diploma in the army , where people shoot at targets , run in the mud , climb ropes , to sum things up , do what they're told? Eh?

...if the army had wanted you to have a wife at home in the states while you're in iraq, they would have issued you one when you enlisted. likewise if the army thinks you're hot shit officer material and should have a diploma from a "top notch" university, they will have dick cheney fly over there to shake your hand and personally issue you one.

...to sum things up, the people who tell the retards what to do are in the army also...

Rob Instigator · 01.23.2008, 11:41 AM

most jobs in the ilitary require education. Only the lowliest of grunts does not.

m1rr0r dash · 01.23.2008, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

most jobs in the ilitary require education. Only the lowliest of grunts does not.

i suggest we now call it the illitary. because of how ill it's gonna be.

Rob Instigator · 01.23.2008, 03:31 PM

tesla69 · 01.23.2008, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m1rr0r dash

I.F. Stone said it a long time ago:

"We Americans have lived in a country that's been very succesful technologically... ?"

way too much people confuse 'ability to manipulate technology' with intelligence. So a dope with an IQ of 10 has the communication power that an emperor could only dream of 100 years ago.

The gang recruitement is actually being done on purpose, so when the troops come back to the states they will be well trained and then the police will have a need to increase their personnel and gear to deal with this - since crime rates actually keep going down, the pigs have to keep creating crime to warrant their existence (ie, teen smoking, seat belts, bike helmets, etc). What better way than to train gang members to kill as efficiently as possible (and I DO think the gangs are a real security issue, they're rapist parasites)

Inhuman · 01.23.2008, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atari 2600

I had a friend who joined the Army in the eighties. Get this, he didn't have a high school diploma, so they *wink*wink* sent him to this "school" to take an equivalency test and basically it's this twenty-minute test and you get a diploma in exchange for two hundred-fifty dollars. My friend reported that the test questions were on about the junior high level.

haha, believed!

m1rr0r dash · 01.23.2008, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tesla69

way too much people confuse 'ability to manipulate technology' with intelligence. So a dope with an IQ of 10 has the communication power that an emperor could only dream of 100 years ago.

way to much peaople cunfuse the ability to mash buttons on a keyboard with literacy. So a dope with an IQ of 10 has the communication power that an emperor could only dream of 100 years ago... and what does he do with it?

Magic Wheel Memory · 01.23.2008, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tesla69

The gang recruitement is actually being done on purpose, so when the troops come back to the states they will be well trained and then the police will have a need to increase their personnel and gear to deal with this - since crime rates actually keep going down, the pigs have to keep creating crime to warrant their existence (ie, teen smoking, seat belts, bike helmets, etc). What better way than to train gang members to kill as efficiently as possible (and I DO think the gangs are a real security issue, they're rapist parasites)

I like you, Tesla, but we don't see eye to eye here. You think teen smoking laws were created to secure more police jobs? Are you opposed to that law? Where would you draw the line? Should a five year old be allowed to get drunk?

I also object to calling cops "pigs." Someone very close to me works with police every day, and I hear stories about many cops who enjoy throwing their weight around. But many of them are good people, just trying to support their families while protecting society. I'd hate to live without them.

m1rr0r dash · 01.24.2008, 03:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magic Wheel Memory

I like you, Tesla, but we don't see eye to eye here. You think teen smoking laws were created to secure more police jobs? Are you opposed to that law? Where would you draw the line? Should a five year old be allowed to get drunk?

I also object to calling cops "pigs." Someone very close to me works with police every day, and I hear stories about many cops who enjoy throwing their weight around. But many of them are good people, just trying to support their families while protecting society. I'd hate to live without them.

i don't particularly like or dislike tesla. i mean i don't even know the guy... i just dislike ill thought out conspiracy theories. and i wasn't talking about the ability to manipulate technology as much as just plain old the recruits are getting dumber. as in, approaching embarrasingly british levels of incompetence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLfzJ...eature=related

✌➬ · 01.24.2008, 03:24 AM

Theories are just stupid, there is no actual evidence. It is all flawed.

atari 2600 · 01.24.2008, 06:23 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic Wheel Memory
I like you, Tesla, but we don't see eye to eye here. You think teen smoking laws were created to secure more police jobs? Are you opposed to that law? Where would you draw the line? Should a five year old be allowed to get drunk?

I also object to calling cops "pigs." Someone very close to me works with police every day, and I hear stories about many cops who enjoy throwing their weight around. But many of them are good people, just trying to support their families while protecting society. I'd hate to live without them.

tesla69, while providing a voice of dissent, is also someone that no longer believes the system can be fixed. Therefore, he goes overboard time and time again, losing credibility in the process. It leads one to wonder what tesla69's point could be if it is not to inform and be a potential catalyst for change. But sadly, it seems tesla69 feels we are all so doomed that he revels in bad news and bad thoughts exclusively in self-fulfilling prophecy.

Although I don't share his ultimate sense of pessimism, I do understand it. It's just that I've know the type and for all their grumbling, none of them ever has any kind of real brain in their head. In short, they are just as narrow-minded as the people they rail against in many ways.

01.23.2008, 01:13 AM	#1
!@#$%! invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: mars attacks Posts: 42,582	let's see if this gets more coverage than dead actors (ha ha yeah right). ---- Army Off Target on Recruits Percentage of High School Graduates Drops to New Low By Josh White Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, January 23, 2008; A02 The percentage of new recruits entering the Army with a high school diploma dropped to a new low in 2007, according to a study released yesterday, and Army officials confirmed that they have lowered their standards to meet high recruiting goals in the middle of two ongoing wars. The study by the National Priorities Project concluded that slightly more than 70 percent of new recruits joining the active-duty Army last year had a high school diploma, nearly 20 percentage points lower than the Army's goal of at least 90 percent. The National Priorities Project, a Massachusetts-based research group that examines the impact of federal budget policies and has been outspoken against the Iraq war, said the number of high school graduates among new recruits fell from 83.5 percent in 2005 to 70.7 percent last year. "The trend is clear," said Anita Dancs, the project's research director, who based the report on Defense Department data released via the Freedom of Information Act. "They're missing their benchmarks, and I think it's strongly linked to the impact [of] the Iraq war." The study also found that the number of "high quality" recruits -- those with both a high school diploma and a score in the upper half on the military's qualification test -- has dropped more than 15 percent from 2004 to 2007. After linking the recruiting data to Zip codes and median incomes, it found that low- and middle-income families are supplying far more Army recruits than families with incomes greater than $60,000 a year. continue
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

01.23.2008, 01:17 AM	#2
atari 2600 invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 8,212	I had a friend who joined the Army in the eighties. Get this, he didn't have a high school diploma, so they winkwink* sent him to this "school" to take an equivalency test and basically it's this twenty-minute test and you get a diploma in exchange for two hundred-fifty dollars. My friend reported that the test questions were on about the junior high level.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

01.23.2008, 03:01 AM	#3
m1rr0r dash invito al cielo Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: atari Posts: 2,228	I.F. Stone said it a long time ago: "We Americans have lived in a country that's been very succesful technologically... and we instinctively think that every problem must have a technological solution. The atom bomb was supposed to be a perfect weapon. The atom bomb gave us nuclear superiority for quite a while. And please notice that in that period of nuclear superiority, was the first time America had ever been kicked around and lost a war to some little 2x5 country across the Pacific. And the Russians today in Afghanistan, with all their nuclear superiority... what good does it do them? The wonder working weapon has to work. We're starving education, the recruits are getting dumber, and the weapons are getting more and more complicated. How the hell you gonna run them?" __________________
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

01.23.2008, 05:39 AM	#4
sonicl invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 9,527	Is the terrible grammatical error in the thread title deliberate?
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

01.23.2008, 07:26 AM	#6
gmku invito al cielo Join Date: May 2006 Location: Oxford, England Posts: 15,225	What's even worse, the Army is recruiting from urban gangs. It's become a big training camp for gangsters. I know Army drill sergeants here who talk about all these tough kids with tattoos up their necks, and they wonder who let them in, and some of these drill sergeants, a tough bunch, are actually afraid of these fuckers. __________________ Ever notice how this place just basically, well, sucks.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

01.23.2008, 07:27 AM	#7
gualbert the end of the ugly Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 1,088	What's the point of having a diploma in the army , where people shoot at targets , run in the mud , climb ropes , to sum things up , do what they're told? Eh?
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

01.23.2008, 07:29 AM	#8
gmku invito al cielo Join Date: May 2006 Location: Oxford, England Posts: 15,225	Yeah, it is kind of counterintuitive. Still, you want sort of smarter people behind those triggers, don't you? __________________ Ever notice how this place just basically, well, sucks.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

01.23.2008, 11:41 AM	#10
Rob Instigator invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In the land of the Instigator Posts: 27,976	most jobs in the ilitary require education. Only the lowliest of grunts does not. __________________ RXTT's Intellectual Journey - my new blog where I talk about all the books I read.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

01.23.2008, 03:31 PM	#12
Rob Instigator invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In the land of the Instigator Posts: 27,976	__________________ RXTT's Intellectual Journey - my new blog where I talk about all the books I read.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

01.24.2008, 03:24 AM	#18
✌➬ invito al cielo Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: ιλ Posts: 5,754	Theories are just stupid, there is no actual evidence. It is all flawed. __________________ We Kill Homosexuals!!!
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

01.24.2008, 06:23 AM	#19
atari 2600 invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 8,212	Quote: Originally Posted by Magic Wheel Memory I like you, Tesla, but we don't see eye to eye here. You think teen smoking laws were created to secure more police jobs? Are you opposed to that law? Where would you draw the line? Should a five year old be allowed to get drunk? I also object to calling cops "pigs." Someone very close to me works with police every day, and I hear stories about many cops who enjoy throwing their weight around. But many of them are good people, just trying to support their families while protecting society. I'd hate to live without them. tesla69, while providing a voice of dissent, is also someone that no longer believes the system can be fixed. Therefore, he goes overboard time and time again, losing credibility in the process. It leads one to wonder what tesla69's point could be if it is not to inform and be a potential catalyst for change. But sadly, it seems tesla69 feels we are all so doomed that he revels in bad news and bad thoughts exclusively in self-fulfilling prophecy. Although I don't share his ultimate sense of pessimism, I do understand it. It's just that I've know the type and for all their grumbling, none of them ever has any kind of real brain in their head. In short, they are just as narrow-minded as the people they rail against in many ways.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|