I Guess Obama is Saying We Should Just Throw Away the Recruiting Manual

The guy who should not have been elected president in 2008 tweeted the following today:

Anybody who wants to serve in our armed forces and make sacrifices on our behalf should be able to. DADT will end & it will end on my watch.

About 20 years ago, I was on recruiting duty. Contrary to popular opinion, recruiting is not just about doing whatever you can to get anybody to enlist. A recruiters primary function is to screen out unqualified applicants and focus on those who will pass the entrance exams and be able to serve. To help recruiters do their jobs the Navy issues recruiters a great big book called the Recruiting Manual. I assume the other services do likewise. We also have give the doctors who perform the entrance physicals a book called the Manual of the Medical Department. Both books are full of disqualifiers. Depending on the economy, recruiting goals and other factors our qualifications change. Oddly enough when we have a draft the Navy can be a little more choosy. When the economy is doing great we are not quite as picky. The changing standards usually involve scores on the entrance exam. Some standards don't change. Regardless of whether we are talking standards of moral turpitude (police involvement, etc) or physical standards (asthma, cancer, HIV, etc, etc, etc) we can not and must not do what the president said: "Anybody who wants to serve in our armed forces and make sacrifices on our behalf should be able to." No, Barack, a lot of people are just not qualified to serve in the military. While on recruiting we said "Thanks, but no thanks" to people for hundreds of reasons. In fact, Mr. President, if you had entered my office and applied we would have said no thanks. That is, if you would have been honest about your drug usage (not that honesty is your strong suit). Experimental pot smoking is waiverable. Regular cocaine usage is not.

Apparently, our commander in chief has just voided all enlistment requirements. Glad I'm not on recruiting now a days.