By Bob Saxby, US Army, ret
Recently we’ve heard arguments that the failure of the military to meet its recruitment goals is a product of recruitment policy.
Politics are also held to play a supporting role. But these only address the surface issues needing adjustment. The real cause is more complicated and rooted in the last thirty years of constant international strife.
The 17-24-year-old populace is the focus in recruiting. This is traditionally where new military personnel are found.
So what have these people been bombarded with their whole lives?
Constant combat, bloody house-to-house fighting against a foe who seeks death as a reward, detailed accounts of every death, never-ending rotations through Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and other trouble spots around the world.
Does the media shout our servicemen’s bravery, their commitment to national pride and support? No — they are shown as failures of our politicians, failures of our foreign policy, stupid for even joining and ignored at home.
Returning soldiers commit suicide at record levels because of lack of public and political support. There is no end to the wars in far-off lands where politicians bloviate and big business grows wealthy.
I spent 26+ years in green, so I know what the military can do for you and how it can help make you a better person. That military is gone. It died as we went to war in Iraq. Vietnam was bad enough for politicalizing foreign wars.
The Middle East is worse. There is no end to battling a religion. As long as one person believes, the war rages on. Especially when some areas are off limits to attack, as were Cambodia, North Vietnam, and Laos.
Or Pakistan and Iran. We never seem to learn that war is either all or nothing. The military knows this simple fact; politicians don’t. Shackles are kept on the military so politicians can show their “leadership,” their worth as “humanitarians.”
Reelection is more important than national security, more important than body bags filled with our young soldiers. More important than destroyed cities we fought to “win.” Politicians bask in the sunshine of victories, even if they are only a product of their imagination.
After years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, after trillions of dollars spent, after thousands of maimed and dead Americans, what did the politicians do? They gave it all away with the wave of a hand and the good intentions of our “all-knowing” politicians.
Our troops gave their lives to secure all those cities and villages. We were proud of what we had accomplished.
Then the politicians left behind enough material to equip an army. They embarrassed the U.S. internationally. They stabbed our allies in the back and left them stranded.
Everything we had bled for was, in one fell swoop, thrown away because a politician wanted to smile into a camera.
Now, we have a Secretary of Defense who is a party hack, doing everything the politicians want to make it appear as if politicians look good and know what they are doing. He is castrating the military with wokeness in the form of mandatory COVID shots and white supremacy eradication. His worship at the throne of far-left politics is leading the military into insignificance.
As our enemies grow stronger, we are sliding ever further into incompetence. And to add to our disastrous military condition, the military chief of staff is a left-leaning NeverTrumper. What kind of an officer stabs his commander (President Trump) in the back by calling the Chinese and telling them he will warn them if Trump does anything to attack them?
This whole administration is anti-military, anti-American, and pro-incompetence. At every turn, they further destroy our will to fight. They further divide us as a nation.
The motive behind every action is the destruction of the U.S. as a unified, strong international power. One federal representative after another stands before the people and lies with a straight face, while the mainstream media backs them up like an echo in a canyon.
The media told us that the Trump administration was the laughingstock of the world. What are world leaders saying now? Tell me they think the Biden administration is anything besides fruit-loops crazy.
Given all these issues combined, what sane young person would want to join our military?
According to what we have seen, anything we do leaves our soldiers, sailors and airmen dangling over a dangerous personal chasm with little prospect of a happy, prosperous future.
In the past, I encouraged young people to join and serve. It was an honorable, worthwhile career. Now? I cannot in good faith advise our young people to raise their hand to become a soldier, a sailor or Marine.
We are a divided nation torn by a minority who seek to destroy the principles that made the U.S. the strongest, freest nation ever to walk this world. Recruitment will again be strong only when we return to the principles that made us the world power that defeated the Axis forces of World War II.
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