AL-R,
Thanks for posting that link. I recall similar material when I was in town fouryears ago - about the basic literacy of recruits into Scottish regiments (average, functional, reading age of 7).
Given the material that the Army works with, they do a pretty good job, especially if one was to consider the trajectory of these kids if they didn't join the forces. Nonetheless, we - the Country - place a huge responsibility on the shoulders of these individuals in these days of the Strategic Corporal; is it no wonder that things go wrong from time to time? These guys are not social anthropologists or linguist, yet in AFG we expect them to behave as such.