De Oorlogsstaat 19

Omdat de oorlogsstaat in permanente staat van oorlog is, wordt het voor het Amerikaanse leger steeds moeilijker om genoeg rekruten te ronselen. De Boston. Com bericht: 'Struggling for recruits, Army relaxes its rules. Fitness, education, age criteria change... With more than 2,200 dead and 16,700 wounded, and a large percentage of Americans disapproving of the war in Iraq, the US military is struggling to meet its recruiting goals. With little fanfare, the Army has eased enlistment restrictions, allowing soldiers previously considered too heavy, too old, too sickly, or too uneducated to head off to basic training. In January, the enlistment age for active-duty Army recruits was raised from 35 to 40. Late last year, a key drug test for recent use of marijuana was softened. Last fall, a high school equivalency program was put in place for high school dropouts. And last spring, a ban on childhood asthmatics was removed. But in a country where the rate of teenage obesity climbed from 5 percent to 16 percent over the last 30 years, perhaps the most significant revision is a loophole that allows recruits who are too heavy to meet weight or body fat limits to take the fitness test anyway. ''There's just a lot of kids sitting around playing Xbox and eating junk food," said Lieutenant Commander Renee J. Squier, who oversees the fitness test in Chicopee. ''We lose a fair amount of people because they're really out of shape."' Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022106G.shtml