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Title: Fort Hood ups challenge to recruit Muslim, Arab troops
Source:
USA Today
URL Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/milita ... -12-10-military-recruits_N.htm
Published: Dec 11, 2009
Author: Kathleen Gray and Donna Leinwand
Post Date: 2009-12-11 19:05:33 by Moderate Mammal
Keywords: None
Views: 983
Comments: 9
DEARBORN, Mich. — Army recruiter Sgt. Chris McGarity is on the front lines of the military's effort to add troops who speak Arabic and understand Middle Eastern culture — a battle that grew more challenging after the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. McGarity says he recently signed up an Arab-American high school student who lacked only her parents' approval to enlist. Then came the Nov. 5 rampage at Fort Hood. The Army has charged Maj. Nidal Hasan, 39, a Muslim and Arab American, with killing 13 people and wounding 32. The high school student's mother "made her withdraw her application," McGarity says. Such experiences illustrate heightened fears of discrimination and harassment aimed at Arab-American and Muslim troops since the Fort Hood shooting, says Mikey Weinstein, a former Air Force lawyer who founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which advocates for separation between church and state in the military. DUTY: Eight Fort Hood wounded will still deploy PTSD: Mental health experts mobilize against troops' trauma FAITH & REASON: November a tough month for U.S. Muslim image MEMORIAL: Remembering the victims Muslims in the military experience "horrible" discrimination, he says. Before the shooting at Fort Hood, the foundation had 80 Muslim clients who had reported instances of discrimination and harassment, Weinstein says. Complaints jumped 20% to 103 in the weeks after the shooting. "We had people almost immediately … being told 'you people' should not be in the military," he says. Weinstein says he regularly gets complaints from troops who report name-calling, extra duty on holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving, anti-Muslim graffiti scrawled on prayer centers, and officers who encourage their troops to kill Muslims or demand Christian prayer. Language as a powerful weapon As the U.S. fights wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the mission to recruit troops who have language and cultural skills useful there has become so critical that the Army created two programs to achieve that goal. Last year, the Army sought 270 recruits who speak Arabic, Pashto, Dari and Farsi — the languages of Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan — to serve as military interpreters, says Douglas Smith, spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky. The Army exceeded its goal, recruiting 321, he says. In 2010, the Army is seeking 165 recruits. A second recruiting program began in February in New York and has expanded to Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas. That program targets non-citizens who have been in the U.S. at least two years and have special language and cultural skills from the Middle East, China and Korea, he said. The Army has recruited 455 people under that program, which expires Dec. 31. "Non-citizens have stepped forward to serve this country in previous wars since the American Revolution," the military says in its briefing papers on the program. Making the cut in Dearborn, Mich. Dearborn, where Arab Americans account for nearly a third of the population, is fertile ground, yet just one Arab-American recruit in 20 makes it through the vetting process, about half the success rate of other recruits. "If you don't have a valid green card, you're out. If you can't pass the aptitude test or can't physically qualify, you're out," says McGarity, 31, who served in Iraq early in the war and has recruited in Dearborn for four years. "Then there are the guys who are willing, but their families aren't." The recruiters recognize that Arab-American enlistees may worry about fitting in with fellow troops or having to fight in Arab or Muslim countries. They work with Arab organizations in the community and attend job fairs to meet potential recruits. They hire Arabic linguists to work in their office, learning about the Middle Eastern cultures themselves. Sgt. Ian Parker, 27, starts conversations with potential soldiers by asking how they feel about going to Iraq or Afghanistan. "Once you hit an objection to that, you're just wasting your time," Parker says. Arab Americans and Muslims in the military remain a tiny minority. Of nearly 1.5 million active-duty military, about 3,500 are Arab Americans. The military does not keep full data on the number of Muslim troops. Jamal Baadani, 45, a Marine reservist living in Virginia, is one of them. He founded the Association of Patriotic Arab Americans in Military and often walked around Arab-American communities in uniform. People would ask why he wanted to serve a government "that's going to kill your own kind," he says. "The U.S. military did not go over there to 'kill your kind.' They went over there to attack a threat that came to this country to attack us," Baadani would respond. "The U.S. Army really respects our community and goes above and beyond to understand our community."
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#1. To: All (#0)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNhi8PoahPo
More evidence that the US Military has been corrupted. Instead of weeding out the Muslim infiltrators, political correctness demands that it's full speed ahead by recruiting more infiltrators. Western liberals have destroy our nation.
It i like what the Romans did. they would put local people in as governor and in legions to give the illusion to the people they were occupying that they were on their side and represented them. All this is is a ploy by the U.S Government to convince afghans that we are on their side because we have muslims in our army, that we are working for them. While in fact we are working to undermine the tribal sovereignty that has lasted in that country for thousands of years and install a corrupt oligarchy run by karzai and his heroine dealer buddies.
Obama is moving the terrorists from Gitmo to his home state of Illinois There's your recruits right there
Maybe they can offer enlistment bonuses to CAIR members of good standing... What the heck it works for LaRaza
Current Bozo Filter:
Instead of weeding out the Muslim infiltrators, political correctness demands that it's full speed ahead by recruiting more infiltrators. You're exactly right. These alleged US "citizens" only abide in their Moon God and the Blood of Infidels. At least half will sell out the U.S. intel, commit treason, or wind up going jihad on American's azzes. Muslim-"Americans" are a LOSE-LOSE for America. BIG TIME.
Hey Mikey - They're lucky it's only name-calling and graffiti you CAIR shill. I wonder how Mikey characterizes Muslims' disdainful regard for his assumed Jewish brethren?
#2. To: Moderate Mammal (#0)
#3. To: Moderate Mammal (#1)
#4. To: Moderate Mammal (#0)
#5. To: Moderate Mammal (#0)
#6. To: Moderate Mammal (#0)
#7. To: Joe Snuffy (#5)
#8. To: Nebuchadnezzar (#2)
More evidence that the US Military has been corrupted.
#9. To: all (#0)
Mikey Weinstein, a former Air Force lawyer...says he regularly gets complaints from [Muslim] troops who report name-calling [and] anti-Muslim graffiti scrawled on prayer centers.
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