Discriminatory Policy In The Dustbin

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United States’ Discriminatory Policy in the Dustbin The United States government’s continuation of a discriminatory policy poses people to question the extension of freedom in a nation where “all men are created equal” and that boasts about their protected rights. For 17 years, the United States government’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy barred homosexuals from openly serving in the armed forces. Military commanders could not ask military personnel about their sexual orientations or begin an investigation except upon the receipt of “credible information” of homosexual conduct. The policy was a compromise between President Bill Clinton, who sought to repeal the military's ban on gay personnel, and the opponents of that repeal …show more content…

As a result, The implementation of the DADT policy has come at a high cost- not only to homosexual service members, but also to the United States military. During the past decade the military has suffered intense shortfalls in recruiting as the United States was engaged in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. Due to this, the military compromised the education, moral, and aptitude standards new recruits were required to meet by offering “moral waivers” to charged criminals and lowering its education and aptitude requirements. The latest statistics compiled by the Defense Department and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the National Priorities Project show that the percentage of new Army recruits with high school diplomas has plummeted from 94 percent in 2003 to 83.5 percent in 2005 to 70.7 percent in 2007. Following this, the percentage of what the Army calls “high quality” – those with high school diplomas who score in the upper 50th percentile on the Armed Forces’ aptitude tests – declined from 56.2 percent in 2005 to 44.6 percent in 2007. In order to ensure that the numerical recruiting missions were met, the Army had to even weaken their regulation that no more than 2 …show more content…

In 2004, just 0.6 percent of new soldiers scored so low. Then in 2005 as the Army had a hard time recruiting, the limit was raised to 4 percent; in 2007, however, the Army exceeded that limit by admitting 4.1 percent of Category IV recruits (Kaplan). Most worrisome is the number of so-called “moral waivers” issued to recruits charged or convicted of felonies that allowed them to enter the military. The U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps recruited significantly more felons into their ranks in 2007 than in 2006, including people convicted of armed robbery, burglary, and arson. In 2008, the New York Times reported that the number of waivers issued to active-duty Army recruits with felony convictions surged from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007, while the Marine Corps increased its issuance of felony waivers from 208 to 350, almost a 70 percent increase. Additionally, from September 30, 2006, to September 30, 2007, the Army granted conduct waivers for misdemeanors and felonies to 18 percent of its new recruits, an increase of three percentage points from the previous

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