May 11, 2006

America's (Autistic) Army. Because the United States Armed Services believes everyone deserves everyone, even the disabled, deserves their chance to serve. (Except those goddamned fags.)

Jared is a autistic kid. Autism, you would think, is not a quality a millitary would want in recruits; autistics tend to have trouble performing simple everyday tasks and maintaining basic human relationships the rest of us take for granted. Even if that weren't a consideration it could be considered rather unethical to talk an autistic into joining the army, especially when, like Jared, they're disconnected enough from day to day life they aren't aware there's a war on. But he got recruited anyway. More disturbingly, even after Jared's familyexplained his condition to the army they were determined to see him in Iraq. Only afer a local paper started making waves was the case reconsidered. And it's not like it's an isolated case: Violations [...] forced the Army to halt recruiting for a day last May so recruiters could be retrained and reminded of the job's ethical requirements.

posted by rodgerd 17 years ago
  • Jobs.... ethical.... requirements.. "ethical flexibility?" I'm seeing a bit of a dichotomy here, the army is asking for one thing and expecting another.
  • " After he'd spoken for a few moments, Velasco suddenly grabbed the reporter's tape recorder and tried to tear out the tape, stopping only after the reporter threatened to call the police." Not like that's suspicious or anything. Of course not.
  • Good. I hate it when that happens.
  • Don't you Americans want to win this war of yours?
  • I can't read a Newhouse News Service story without thinking of sidedish... is she still around?
  • SideDish hasn't been around since the moooshy incident, although if I recall correctly, she told Koko that she is just very busy with a large project...
  • That's what I recall as well -- but where's quiddy? I thought he was going Down Under for a while, but that seemed like ages ago now... Oh, and on the link itself -- I was at first shocked that one only needed to score 31% on the entrance exam to get in. But, unfortunately, not shocked for long. As for the kid himself, I'm surprised that given the issues of capacity to consent, that the parents don't have some Power of Attorney in place to help out their son. It's also a bit strange to think that the Army probably could have taken differently-abled kids like this in the past, to put them on potato-peeling duty or some such thing -- but all that has been contracted out.
  • My thoughts on this, as someone who is on the autistic spectrum -and- served in the military for ten years, is that it is a spectrum disorder. Some people such as myself can function pretty well, others are severely impaired. What this story really needs is an interview with Jared himself... to me it reads like a he-said she-said tale. I hate to say it but the military is actually a good place for a somewhat autistic person, since social and work life are all highly regimented. The real issue of course is whether Jared knows his life is on the line, but what I wonder is whether he's happy doing what he's doing. The only other twinge of concern I get is whether the military is preferentially taking on autistic folks for its front-line work, since autistic people naturally objectify the enemy.
  • Also for what it's worth, I just noticed that I was eating Subway while writing about Jared.
  • Skrik: At this point, I'll settle for a loss that cuts our losses than a win that takes 10 years and leaves us bankrupt.
  • My former cubemate's son didn't even make the required 31%, but the recruiter told him they could make a "limited-time-only offer" exception, if he signed up within 24 hours, and did he want to be left behind when all his friends joined up?