Old, fat, asthmatic, addicted? Your country still needs you

Wow.

SYDNEY – Australia is so desperate for soldiers that the middle-aged are now being recruited.

“Why can’t we have people who might be well into their 50s, where there’s a whole variety of tasks that might be undertaken that don’t involve flying planes or marching 20 kilometres with a backpack?” Defence Minister Brendan Nelson told The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday.

“We can get 10 years’ service from this individual,” he said.

Earlier this year Nelson announced a relaxation of recruitment rules so that the overweight, asthmatics and former drug addicts could join up.