Should the Army always maintain the same standards for entry or should they fluctuate with requirements?

I think that there might be some wiggle room on height/weight for initial induction, but taking in people with known mental issues should not be waived. High stress jobs dealing with high explosives are no place for the unstable, IMHO.

Firstly, this article is bullshit. It is greatly exaggerating what is actually happening, and insinuating things that will “stir the pot”. If I wasn’t on mobile I would link to the couple articles where the Army responded to this article, and completely refute what it states.

The Army is not lowering any standards. The change is simply the level at which waivers can be approved at. Previously for example if you had an applicant who went to counseling for depression because their parents got divorced, that applicant would technically be disqualfied or would need a waiver from the Deparrment of the Army. Now that waiver can be processed “in-house” at USAREC, and this otherwise qualified person can enlist.

As for the “alcohol and drug abusers”, there have always been waivers for certain things. Weed is becoming much more socially acceptable, and therefore more widely used. Should we continue to disqualify people for having EVER smoked weed? Now we are further restricting the recruitable pool of people. We aren’t talking about drug dealers, or hard drug users.

As for the self-mutilation, nobody with suidcidal tendencies is just going to get in. The new rules allow individual cases to be reviewed on a whole person concept (ie: this person cut themselves when they were younger, but have since grown and are normal responsible adults now, who additionally have been cleared by a psychologist).

If anything the Army is making it harder to get people in. We have not been able to enlist High School Seniors who score less than 50 for the past 6 months. (Unless certain circumstances are met and then only so many can enlist). Enlisting/shipping off Green Card holders has gotten stricter. The only thing that is realitively easier are Prior Service people, and there are still rules to them.

I don't think we have a choice. We already face a limited population that even wants to enlist and 10% of that are DQ'd because of lack of general physical fitness. That leaves the option of lowering standards in other areas such as morality and mental fitness (although I question that one with such a large amount of Soldiers that already have issues due to PTSD).