Army is now recruiting autistic kids. Apparently they ran plumb out of all the Lynndie England types.

Jared Guinther is 18. Tall and lanky, he will graduate from Marshall High School in June. Girls think he's cute, until they try to talk to him and he stammers or just stands there -- silent.

Diagnosed with autism at age 3, Jared is polite but won't talk to people unless they address him first. It's hard for him to make friends. He lives in his own private world.

Jared didn't know there was a war raging in Iraq until his parents told him last fall -- shortly after a military recruiter stopped him outside a Southeast Portland strip mall and complimented him on his black Converse All Stars.

"When Jared first started talking about joining the Army, I thought, 'Well, that isn't going to happen,' " said Paul Guinther, Jared's father. "I told my wife not to worry about it. They're not going to take anybody in the service who's autistic."

But they did. Last month, Jared came home with papers showing that he not only had enlisted, but also had signed up for the Army's most dangerous job: cavalry scout. He is scheduled to leave for basic training Aug. 16.

Officials are now investigating whether recruiters at the U.S. Army Recruiting Station in Southeast Portland improperly concealed Jared's disability, which should have made him ineligible for service.

Jared's story illustrates a growing national problem as the military faces increasing pressure to hit recruiting targets during an unpopular war.

This is illegal and whoever did this should be court martialed immediately! What kind of piece of shit sends a mentally challenged man-child to die? Who are these bastards?

I have worked with, and continue to work with, a number of autistic children and there is no doubt that they cannot care for themselves or be expected to make appropriate decisions concerning their life or their safety. They very often spend their adult lives in a group home or in a supported living envrionment with a caregiver who helps them to cope with lifes complexities. Only a truly horrible person would allow this type of individual to volunteer to fight in a war. Check out how they convinced this young man to trust them.

Last fall, Jared began talking about joining the military after a recruiter stopped him on his way home from school and offered a $4,000 signing bonus, $67,000 for college and more buddies than he could count.

Matthew (Jared's stepbrother) told his mother that military recruiting at the school and surrounding neighborhoods was so intense that one recruiter had pulled him out of football practice.

I thought I had seen every type of evil that the world had to offer but this recruiter just sank to a new low in my book. To prey on these helpless citizens in unconscionable. This quite literally makes me feel violent toward the person who tried to recruit this boy. I just hope that somebody steps in and stops them from taking him.