The military serves an important role in economic mobility for the working class. This often drives recruitment. I have peers who have been able to attend college only because of the GI Bill and other associated benefits, which have exempted them from the continuously spiraling college-debt crisis. Public support for college-debt relief and other similar measures have damaged this enlistment incentive. As the social safety net expands, the military will have to find other means of enticing potential recruits.
The convergence of anti-American sentiment and falling of physical-health standards has culminated in 80% of 18- to 24-year-olds being deemed unfit to serve, which has deepened the recruitment-retirement ratio.
According to the Reagan National Defense Survey, 62% of Americans believe military leadership has become overly politicized and decreased their confidence in the armed forces, and almost 60% say it is due to a lack of presidential competence. To combat this, the military must rescind its political posturing and affirm its core values: protecting American freedoms, not designing them.
Lost confidence in American institutions through this politicization should be deeply concerning. Four out of five young adults in the U.S. aren’t fit to serve due to being overweight, using drugs, or not meeting other of the military’s physical and mental standards. But it’s even more concerning that healthy people don’t want to join.
I left for the Army the day after I turned 18. Next month will be 40 years (yikes!). I had always wanted to be in the military as a young kid, so I guess the decision was a given. That said, as a young guy now? Not sure what I’d choose to do.
I’d probably still do it though, sucker that I am.
I’m right there with you, I turned 19 on the German Border. I always wanted to be a Soldier also, it runs in the Family; however I think my Brother and I are the only Lifers.
Probably Still…
Yeah, I would do it too / again. But I certainly understand why people wouldn’t want to do it.
I work with people at SOCOM (actually headed down there tomorrow) and the students going through SF training are highly motivated and seem to be immune from politics.
Growing up I wanted to be a green beret and a cop (movies and tv), I would later understand that I probably couldn’t be one and didn’t actually want to be the other.
That said, if I grew up in the last 10 years I probably wouldn’t want anything to do with either one.
Sadly I have encountered more people whose stated function is to be a bruja / brujo (current hip term for wiccan / witch) and actually believe they have powers and can cast spells than I have people who actually serve a useful purpose. Reminds me of all the filthy hippies in the 60s with a copy of the I Ching throwing pennies and thinking they possessed the secrets of the universe.
I’m watching a couple of my Son’s friends quickly become rich, Software and Specialty Tires (of all things).
None of those guys served and this is a Military Community, they sure went to work though.
More oung people are seeing that the military is just an extension of the government. Politicians decide where and who you fight (usually based on lies) and routinely sacrifice tactical objectives that cost lives for political objectives that only serve their own interests and egos and not the best interests of America or Americans. Thats not anti American it’s just the truth.
Honestly the only people who belong in the military are those who want to be in the military. A lot of people, their talents lie elsewhere. Figuring out where you best fit can be one of the hardest things a person does with their life. And nobody in the military should be working with and depending upon other personnel who have no business being in the military in the first place.
When WWII broke out, you ended up in real shitholes in the South Pacific full of diseases, rats and fanatical Japanese. Nobody was getting a posting anyplace wonderful.
And in WWII there were actually dumb ****ers in charge who contemplated NOT using the bomb in Japan despite the fact that it probably saved millions of lives. More than a few people actually wanted to go forward with a mainland invasion. We probably took some islands in the Pacific that could have easily been skipped, some we had to take but some we didn’t. Thankfully we did island hop over some serious ones.
Much as I admire Churchill, his insistence that Italy was the “easy road” into Europe was way off base. Shortly after we “finally” took Rome, we landed in Normandy. Sure we tied down lots of German forces in Italy, but they killed our guys just the same, especially in places like Anzio where we didn’t have our shit completely together.
As far as political objectives, we began that war because Germany (and Russia) invaded Poland. Yet somehow when it was all over, Russia was allowed to keep Poland. The liberation of Poland would have to wait several decades.
We freed France, and right after the war they threatened to fall under the communist sphere of influence if we didn’t support them in their effort to reclaim their colony of Indochina, which is how we ended up in Vietnam. Political chess has been ****ing us and our fighting men for quite some time.
The big difference of course is we at least have a volunteer army these days.
Politicizing our Mil and government agencies has seriously damaged both. When I was enlistment age, I was horrified at the idea of getting blown up for some politician who could give a crap about me. So I never joined the Military.
Now days, it’s still that risk… PLUS the lunatic left wing woke crap, and the forced vaccinations, etc. No chance.
Our armed forces are shrinking in size and capacity. The current crisis in military recruiting qualifies as a direct threat to U.S. national security.
In just two years, the active duty Army has shrunk from 485,000 to only 452,000 troops. It expects to fall short of its recruiting goals again this year. The Navy and Air Force are predicting shortfalls as well. As a result, our nation will have under-strength Army formations, Navy ships and Air Force squadrons—at a time when America is depending on its military to a greater degree than in the previous three decades.
Yet many American are unaware that the military is facing a recruitment crisis. Indeed, other than the individual military services furiously racing to turn around recruiting trends, the White House and senior Pentagon leaders have been silent on the issue, not giving a single speech or interview on the topic.
Why would they? This is what they want, Joe and the Hoe are not sitting around wringing their hands worrying about the state of military recruitment. Just like the irreversible damage being done with the millions of illegal immigrants swarming this country- no press releases there because that is what they want. I chuckle when I hear the talking heads discussing what needs to be done to fix the economy or curb rampant crime or stop illegal immigration or fix military recruitment because this is what they want. Creating crisis and chaos makes the weak minded cry out to the .gov to fix it- just take our money and freedom but fix it.
Not in my 24 years experience in SOF. We have them but do not talk openly about it as we are not supposed to. I can tell you that 99% of the men I worked with were very conservative in SOF. That 1% that was not either moved on or got out.
I think you articulated it better than I did. Everyone has their opinions, but you put them in your pocket and do the job; they don’t define you.
One guy with whom I worked, former 18D now a civilian CRNA, is an extremely mouthy liberal. He is so polarizing after the Q word got out and no team would take him. He went straight from the Q to cadre for SFMS.
But most guys with whom I worked were fairly conservative.
Yeah, weeelll…when you lower your recruitment numbers ahead of time it looks like you “met numbers” when you really didn’t. The Marines aren’t immune to any of this PC/woke bullshit, and by damned if the friggin’ Air Force (of all services) has trouble recruiting you know full well the Jarheads aren’t picking up the extras!
You forget the most important thing: they WANT this because they want that sweet Chinese payola and to keep the money flowing they have to keep their paymasters in Beijing happy.