This is coolbert: A real bad idea that was accepted for a long time as being a good idea was the idea to force delinquents to join the Army to get some discipline. A lot of times, judges, when facing a delinquent that was on the road to jail, would offer the miscreant the option of going to jail or joining the Army. Well, of course, in almost all cases, the bad guy would join the Army. This was an idea that said that military discipline would keep the kid out of mischief and get his act together. The bad guy would leave the Army with a skill and a new reformed outlook on life. I think this policy was was deemed with hindsight to be more or less a failure on all counts. The bad guy just found a new home to act bad in. Stealing from fellow soldiers, undisciplined, trouble making just went from one venue to another. Once the villain got the feel for things, their character and true nature just manifested itself in new ways of being bad. These were not the persons you wanted in the military in the first place. More or less forced upon the military. Well meaning idea, but not really practical.

In WW2, the British tried the same thing, with also abject results. Convicts were let out of prison on the proviso that they join an airborne brigade. These villains did, but the results were more or less a total failure. These were not people that ever subjected themselves or been subjected to discipline and order taking without controversy. These guys agreed to join the Army just to get out of prison. Their mentality is just so screwed up that they make very poor or worthless soldiers. More trouble than they are worth. The thought was of course that you take these bad guys, persons who are accustomed to using violence to get what they want in the first place, and put them into combat arms, where they can use their tendencies for the greater good of the country. Never happened.

Now, here is something working against that idea that can be observed in nature. It has been observed that most predatory criminals seem to possess a very cowardly nature. Well, this surprises most persons. But when the types of persons that most criminals victimize are categorized, it is usually found that these are weak, old, defenseless persons who are just not capable of offering resistance to the criminal. Either intentionally or unintentionally the predatory criminal picks victims that will not offer resistance and are very easy marks for them. This sort of behavior is also observable in the animal kingdom. I have seen a nature film of a polar bear testing the members of a colony of walrus for weakness. Going from walrus to walrus, pawing at them but not attacking. The walrus can fight back and kill the polar bear. The bear was testing for weakness and did find a weak juvenile and killed it. The bear would not go after an adult that could offer resistance. Putting criminals with such a mentality in the military makes no sense. These criminals will freeze when confronted with an enemy who puts up resistance and can kill or injure them. This is the criminals basic nature and you cannot force them to go against it, even with military discipline.

coolbert.