Shocking story here in the local paper, The Oregonian, about what the military has been up to. This involves recruitment of an 18 year-old autistic boy, and it is appalling:

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/i...

"Tracking by the Pentagon shows that complaints about recruiting improprieties are on pace to approach record highs set in 2003 and 2004. The active Army and the Reserve missed recruiting targets last year, and reports of recruiting abuses continue from across the country."

So the Pentagon is aware of recruiting abuses, but the number continues to rise.

"A family in Ohio reported that its mentally ill son was signed up, despite rules banning such enlistments and the fact that records about his illness were readily available.

In Houston, a recruiter warned a potential enlistee that if he backed out of a meeting he would be arrested.

And in Colorado, a high school student working undercover told recruiters he had dropped out and had a drug problem. The recruiter told the boy to fake a diploma and buy a product to help him beat a drug test."

This is obviously a systemic problem that the Pentagon has no intention of correcting. They are just hoping that the number of abuses that they get away with outnumber the abuses that get caught.