UNFIT FOR MILITARY SERVICE

Culture's Casualties Can't Make Grade As Potential Recruits

While the Sept. 11 attack on the United States has elicited an outpouring of
patriotic sentiment, the flotsam and jetsam of cultural degradation also
remain apparent.

Many young people have volunteered for military service; the number is at
record levels since volunteer service took effect.

Yet only a small part of this record number qualify.

Uncle Sam is far more selective than when the signs read "Uncle Sam wants
you." According to military officials, new recruits cannot:

* Be a single parent with custody of a child.

* Be overweight or pregnant, or get pregnant before training is complete.

* Be on any medication, including Prozac, inhalers or AIDS drugs.

* Have used marijuana more than 10 times or have ever used cocaine or
similar drugs.

* Have tattoos above the neck or on the hands, or ones considered racist,
obscene or gang related.

* Have braces.

* Have any drug charges, domestic charges, violent crime convictions or be
on probation.

In establishing these sensible criteria, the military excludes a substantial
portion of the recruitable population. Fortunately this is a war different
from, say, World War II, when 12 million men were mobilized. It will be
fought with fewer troops and on many fronts, including the financial world.

Yet it is instructive that many of those who might be considered for a
fighting force are casualties of a degraded culture. Since 30 percent of all
children in the United States and three-quarters of black children are born
out of wedlock, it isn't surprising that the single-parent exclusion
prevents many people from entering the pool of military volunteers.

It is also not surprising that many recruits are excluded for being
overweight. Obesity is a national scourge. afflicting an estimated one in
three Americans.

With recreational drug use prominent among high schoolers and medications
like Prozac liberally dispensed even for "unhappiness," let alone
depression, it is hard to find youths who haven't taken some drugs. And
tattoos are in as a form of appearance enhancement, if one can rely on
cultural examples such as basketball players Dennis Rodman and Alan Iverson,
and a host of rap performers.

I am not suggesting the military should modify its standards. They're valid
and should be enforced.

But those excluded from service represent the extent to which perverse ideas
of behavior have penetrated American life. They are a reminder of popular
culture's influence. The fast-food mania, getting high and sexual
promiscuity are far too often the national reality. That reality has had its
effect.

There was a time when men were rejected from military service because of
flat feet or an irregular heartbeat. Now rejection is related more to
cultural phenomena.

Americans are healthy but they are not fit and they are not sound. Perhaps
an elite that engages in sexual proclivities without regard to consequences
is to blame. Or film directors who portray characters who think it's cool to
get high. Or celebrities who promote fast food, even though they wouldn't be
caught dead biting into one of those fatty burgers.

In the end, finding young people who fit the military bill is a real
challenge. Either the country shapes up, or the ability to defend it will
significantly diminish.

Surely that calls for a cultural revolution.