Senator Kerry's comments concerned an alleged lack of intelligence among the troops and the notion that many of the recruits are poor. First of all, the comment was grossly inaccurate.
No, your interpretation of it is grossly inaccurate. He was clearly taking a swipe at the President, and in an election season in which no Republican can claim any real policy successes, the right-wing echo chamber has reduced themselves to endlessly parsing the statements of a man not even running for office. Absent any legitimate progress on Iraq, they're left to slap around a man not on any ballot - mostly out of a reflexive habit left over from 2004.
Every year since 1983, over 90 percent of all recruits have at least a high school diploma. Many officers and enlisted personnel tend to get college degrees (both graduate and undergraduate), often paid for by the armed services.
And yet the Army has very publicly lowered the educational standards for entry...
The claim that most of the recruits are poor also did not stand up to facts. Most of the recruits come from middle-class families. These recruits also score high on the AVSAB tests (two-thirds of recruits score over 60 percent on the test).
The ASVAB is not a "percentage" test where a high or low grade is relevant. It is a test to determine what job skills you're best suited to, in the interest of matching you up with a good job in the military. You'd think a military website would recognize that.
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