Affirmative action and the Fort Hood shooter

“If there is a plausible alternate hypothesis, I’d like to hear it.”

How about this one:

“But Pentagon statistics show the Army met that goal by accepting a higher percentage of enlistees with criminal records, drug or alcohol problems, or health conditions that would have ordinarily disqualified them from service.

In each fiscal year since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, statisics show, the Army has accepted a growing percentage of recruits who do not meet its own minimum fitness standards. The October statistics show that at least 1 of every 5 recruits required a waiver to join the service, leading military analysts to conclude that the Army is lowering standards more than it has in decades.”

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/11/27/stepped_up_army_recruiting_enlists_many_with_problems/

See also http://articles.sfgate.com/2006-10-01/opinion/17315471_1_recruits-criminal-records-military , and any of a number of related discussions.

So the alternate hypothesis is that the Army was so hard up for qualified psychiatrists that it didn’t want to let even questionable ones go? I can buy that.

And I’d suspect that it’s especially hard to hold on to folks like psychiatrists. Private practice pays better, allows one to chose one’s own practice location (and doesn’t send folks overseas), probably has easier-to-work-with clients (rather than a long line of PTSD Iraq/Afghanistan vets), and doesn’t impose PT requirements.

I should point out, that I don’t mean to disparage Army psychs. I have great respect for people who choose that path. But it’s clearly a difficult job to recruit. Lucrative private practice, or 6 a.m. PT and multi-year tours in Iraq? The army has trouble filling the ranks of basic infantry, much less folks who have six-figure incomes as an alternate choice.

I can buy that too. Frankly I bet both played into it.

The Army’s response to the whole thing was definitely PC, so if you’re getting PC out, you probably have some PC getting put in.

There’s something to be said for not getting stuck looking for the One True Explanation.