Current enlistment standards are out of whack. Audie Murphy and Alvin York would both be sent home if they walked into a recruiting station today.
The standards of enlistment were racheted up after Desert Storm, because the Army was downsizing. Now we are in a situation where we need recruits and the standards are higher than they have ever been in history.
There is something to be said for the "bootstrap" army. The army has a responsibility to help raise the general population by their bootstraps and give them opportunities they never would have seen otherwise. Current recruiting standards are as high as four year colleges.
I'm not advocating opening the prisons, but "go to war or go to jail" saved a lot of people from a lifetime in jail.
Totally unmitigated bullsqueese!
The military is NOT a social worker's program.