How the War on Drugs Creates Soldiers for the War in Iraq

I found this story at a bird and a bottle. In case you are uninformed, federal aid is denied to American students that have a criminal record for use or possession of drugs. We have the bloviating Mark Souder to thank for that. So even though poor people are denied a college education because of a drug conviction, they can still go into the military. The war is so unpopular that they will take any warm body that they can get.

From the AP:

The military routinely grants waivers to admit recruits who have criminal records, medical problems or low aptitude scores that would otherwise disqualify them from service. Overall the majority are moral waivers, which include some felonies, misdemeanors, and traffic and drug offenses.

The number of felony waivers granted by the Army grew from 411 in 2003 to 901 in 2006, according to the Pentagon, or about one in 10 of the moral waivers approved that year. Other misdemeanors, which could be petty theft, writing a bad check or some assaults, jumped from about 2,700 to more than 6,000 in 2006. The minor crimes represented more than three-quarters of the moral waivers granted by the Army in 2006, up from more than half in 2003.

As Bean points out, these are the same people that have lost their right to vote in elections due to their felony convictions. Go read the whole thing.