We are no longer receiving people from the society who are as much in step with the qualities that our institution must have for success on the battlefield.I don't write to dispute what Gen. Mattis says, I'm sure he is essentially correct. Rather I write to make a friendly suggestion.
More than 70 percent of 18- to 24-year-old males and females cannot qualify to be a private in the Army. … I’m told it’s 72 percent, it’s unfortunately going up.
This is combination of illicit drug abuse, illicit drug use, obesity is probably the biggest one, morals, you know, just arrests, that sort of thing and there are other reasons.
Former arrests and illicit drug use never kept the French Foreign Legion from enrolling low-life rascals and turning them into acceptable infantry. And obesity is nothing that a lean diet and hard exercise can't reverse in young people.
True, for most of their history the Legion was garrisoned abroad, kept away from the good folk of Metropolitan France. No reason we couldn't do the same with units of our forces, Puerto Rico or the Northern Marianas come to mind as base locations.
Our military has been spoiled by its volunteer-only status. They want to enlist sterling citizens when traditionally standing armies were filled with losers and ne'er-do-wells. The only time the cream of American youth volunteered en masse was for truly patriotic wars, following Pearl Harbor or the sinking of the Lusitania.
