Are We So Desperate For Soldiers?

Combat experience can create mental health issues for soldiers, and we have a hard enough time as an army and a society trying to help those soldiers.  How bad off must recruitment be if we're willing to accept into the army people with a known history of mental illness?

People with a history of “self-mutilation,” bipolar disorder, depression and drug and alcohol abuse can now seek waivers to join the Army under an unannounced policy enacted in August, according to documents obtained by USA TODAY.

The decision to open Army recruiting to those with mental health conditions comes as the service faces the challenging goal of recruiting 80,000 new soldiers through September 2018. To meet last year's goal of 69,000, the Army accepted more recruits who fared poorly on aptitude tests, increased the number of waivers granted for marijuana use and offered hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses.

The fact that democracies won't stomach war for so long, combined with a rapidly improving economy after 8 years of stale growth, no doubt are influences.  Still, there have to be better ways of handling the situation than this.

Update, 11/16/17:  Not so fast:

USA Today reported the decision to open Army recruiting to those with mental health conditions comes as the service faces the challenging goal of recruiting 80,000 new soldiers through September 2018.

To meet last year's goal of 69,000, the Army accepted more recruits who fared poorly on aptitude tests, increased the number of waivers granted for marijuana use, and offered hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses, the outlet reported.

The Army, however, said it made a "simple, administrative change" to how waiver requests are approved, Seamands said.