-- The U.S. Armed Forces are values-based organizations that view allegations of recruiter impropriety very seriously, fully investigate those accusations, and prosecute violators as appropriate based upon evidence obtained during inquiries. The Associated Press story is based, in fact, on the efforts of the Marine Corps, the Navy, the Air Force and the Army to investigate, solve and deal with these allegations for the past 10 years. The cases the Associated Press cites are military investigations -- where the military is policing itself.

-- The Army trains its recruiters extensively to speak with aspiring recruits without using deception, misrepresentation, falsifying records, coercion or harassment.

-- The Army has a formal and proven system for tracking and reporting potential and actual recruiter misconduct as well as a quality assurance system and program to identify recruiter behavior patterns to reveal irregularities.

-- The range of outcomes in the cases over a 10-year period discussed Aug. 17 in a story by the Associated Press ranged from reprimands, through general discharge from the U.S. Army, up to courts-martial.

-- There are more than 13,500 Soldiers serving as Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve recruiters in cities and towns across America, serving their country with integrity and pride.

Lke the Catholic Church, the Army has been complicit in a pattern of rapes that it has enabled. Recruiters are accused, then immediately reassigned, with no justice given to their victims.

"The U.S. Armed Forces are values-based organizations that view allegations of recruiter impropriety very seriously, fully investigate those accusations, and prosecute violators as appropriate based upon evidence obtained during inquiries." -- Sound familiar?

Read the report.

Two quotes from above:

"Last week the GAO released its findings that incidents of recruiter wrongdoing increased 50% from 2004 to 2005, to a total of 6600 cases."

and

"-- There are more than 13,500 Soldiers serving as Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve recruiters"...

Hmmm... That seems to imply about one case for every two recruiters. If, say, 90% of the recuiters are "clean", then the other 10% have on average 5 incidents each. If really there are only a few "bad apples", say 1%, then each is responsible for an average of 50 incidents (one each week). If there are very few bad apples, they must be truly rotten. I don't see any way to make these numbers look good.

William, the figure of 13,500 recruiters is just for the U.S. Army. While it's the largest service, that figure doesn't include recruiters for the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force. So, that amount won't work as a total figure for all recruiters within the Department of Defense to calculate percentages.

On Michael's comment "sounds familiar," that type of criticism also has a familiar ring. The best part about the United States of America is the freedom that our citizens enjoy to be skeptical of our Armed Forces, religion, our role in the world and our Government.

I grew up with a father who was a military officer, and I guess because of this I tend to shy away from dumping on the military, no matter how I disagreed with my father on many issues. Still when I look at the last 4 years I can’t help but criticize this institution because they are really being led by the worst kind of incompetence—starting with the secretary of Defense. I mean who would join a military that doesn’t even defend those it pins medals on. The first man who comes to my mind is Senator John Kerry. Why on earth should he have had to defend his medals from the Vietnam War and to be publicly belittled during the presidential campaign? Either a person earns their medals or the meaning they embody carries no honor period. That the Senator from Massachusetts found the war in Vietnam to be an utter hypocrisy after he served there and saw it first hand, and because of what he was witness to he discovered inwardly that it would be cowardly of himself to remain silent on the issue and found it necessary to come forward and express his disgust with that war seems to say something about his character as an individual. For me, it says, “Hey I like that guy, he’s got guts and he has integrity.” Those who would denounce his medals are those who bring disgrace upon the very symbol of the military and its principle of valor, yet the military’s cowardice and it feebleness to stand forward and say clearly to the American public so that no American doubts the fact that the military doesn’t give its medals away for nothing—it ain’t no five and dime when comes to those it honors—and those that have medals, have in fact earned them might encourage youth to actually believe that the military is an organization that stands up for its own. The military went through thick and thin to protect President Bush in terms of defending his service record—a man who claims he completely agreed with the Vietnam War and the reasons for which it was fought but who lacked the individual will to stand for that belief on the battlefield and to do as Mr. Kerry did—volunteer for combat. For me that raises doubts about what our President really stands for. Or when we look at the wide spread cases of torture in the Iraq War and beyond, where the word used is “rotten apples” as opposed to obeying orders and to see how the forces of democracy failed to bring forth the truth on the matter but instead showed clearly and beyond all doubt a system that used its hierarchy of power and subordination to suppress the truth so as to protect the guilty and to punish the obedient then we see the real truth as to why no one in their right mind would lay their life on the line and join such a system that has no sense of respect, and lacks any sense of true honor for those who are in fact the frontline of our defense—the common soldier. No doubt that to obey an immoral order is in itself immoral but those endowed with the responsibility of giving such an order, and do so willingly or in accord with the chain of command are the core of immorality and thus today that is what the military has to say it defends, otherwise heads would have rolled—it defends the immorally guilty and punishes the obedient. In Vietnam the military was willing to offer up a Lieutenant for its immorality, in Iraq it won’t go beyond a grunt. Apparently that was the lesson of Vietnam militarily speaking. Of course had we listened to our original leadership in the military before the Iraq War and before they were forced to retire by Donald Rumsfeld, we would not have gone to war in Iraq in the first place and the military’s truer and higher sense of honor preserved. Yet it is because they advised against war that they were removed—so there you have it—we are being led by incompetent, immoral fools and the average American youth is acutely aware of this fact, hence the reluctance to serve such hypocrisy! If you want young blood to serve, then regain some credibility by getting rid of the present leadership in the Pentagon—starting with the Secretary of Defense.

This is nothing new. This was happening, and happened to me, when I joined the Army back in 1984. However, at least I can own up to equal culpability in the sexual acts that took place. I would not say I was preyed upon. He was cute. I liked him. He thought I was cute. He wanted to have sex. I agreed. End of story. The sexual act didn't have a damn thing to do with my enlisting. However, plenty of girls I knew when I went active duty used the relationship they had with their recruiter as an excuse to get out when things got too tough in basic training.

I'm not saying there aren't any victims. But I do think there is a lot more taking place on both sides of the fence and it's not necessarily all the members of the military's fault.

It's getting harder and harder to distinguish between the "bad apples" and the "bad orchards".

The truth is, these types of things have been around for some time. It's just that the numbers were much lower reflecting society at large.

Bad policy, lower standards, stress, and a willingness by those in charge to look the other way, all the while demeaning and dehumanizing others at random leads to this type of behavior.

The fish truly does rot from the head down.