Four college students wrote short essays about what would help military recruitment in The Wall Street Journal’s “Future View” opinion pages. You can read them here.
What was far more interesting were the thoughtful comments on the essays by readers, including military-connected ones:
“My grandson was planning to join the military but after the Afghanistan debacle and the apparent politicization of the military decided not to join. He is a young man who finished college with a degree in computer science and cybersecurity. He would have been a terrific asset as an officer but the military leadership destroyed the ambitions and sense of security in the armed forces of young people. Something is wrong with the leadership of the military and is potentially dangerous for the country.”
“When the U.S. military (even the Marines) has “diversity officers,” aka commissars, you know all you need to know about why recruiting is horrible.”
“I spent 22 years in the service. I definitely agree with last post which speaks to “woke” leadership. What is disconcerting is that I don’t know if the senior officers actually believe the woke agenda or are they just trying to please their master. In either case, it is a lack of principled leadership that has helped get us here.”
“I had a long conversation with a young officer recently and asked him the reaction to the ‘woke’ military mandates from above. He said, “None of us believe that stuff. We just laugh it off and ignore what they say.” That sounds like the opposite of respect for the chain of command.”
–“Not entirely true. My son, who is a sergeant, cannot apply the same discipline to certain special groups of people for fear of being disciplined by his superior officers. It’s not the military of yesterday when you have different rules for some, merely because of the color of their skin and/or their sexual preferences. This process breeds resentment, which is the last thing you need in that environment.”
“We won’t meet our recruitment goals until the current PC Generals leave the ranks. Instead of talking about warfighting, they talk about DEI, CRT, LGBTQ. Let’s not forget that no one was fired for the Afghanistan debacle. As a 26 yr veteran, I wouldn’t recommend signing up as many fellow veterans feel the same. Until Defense cleans house and rights the ship, we’ll continue to fall short on recruits.”
“The problem with recruiting is that it isn’t all about money and incentives. For 30 years at least American universities and the commanding heights of the culture dismissed the legitimacy of citizenship and taught the young that America is bad. When people DON’T BELIEVE in their country, they won’t fight for it. That’s why we’re in this mess with recruiting.”
“The most fundamental transformation to our republic that has come about this century is the success the left has had with transforming our nation into one that few would defend.”
“Young men want adventure. They want danger. This is the draw to the military. Woke hipsters have never been the people who make up the military. People from rural, conservative America are. When you remove the adventure and create a politically leftist environment, these young men will seek their adventure elsewhere. And our “leaders” are so dumb and out of touch that they will double down on the rainbow brigade. This only makes sense if they are trying to remake the military into something political that wouldn’t have a problem turning its guns on its own citizens. There is no other reason for it.”
“All of a sudden (since January 2020) the potential recruit pool has gotten fatter, stupider, and less patriotic. All of a sudden families that have sent generations of sons to the combat arms are saying ‘don’t go’. All of a sudden potential recruits have discovered that the military isn’t where the big money is made. All of a sudden……………..”
“I think we have a lost generation here with Gen Z. I read where these young people are so anxious they don’t answer their phones. They obviously have not been prepared for the real world of competitiveness and harsh realities. The military hasn’t helped their recruitment cause. Devising military programs to attract transgenders is very much at cross purpose to military doctrines. Leadership matters and when weak woke leadership comes from the top rung we all suffer the consequences of the mistakes made. No one escapes from real world consequences for very long.”
“We built a society in which no one feels connected to anyone or anything. Everything is just about power and money these days. We used to care about our communities, our neighbors, our church, but now there’s just the material world and everything is devoid of meaning or purpose. My neighbor wants completely different things than I do, and even wants my religion and ideas removed from public life, and I’m supposed to fight for him? No thank you. I’m supposed to fight for a nation that wants to dismantle traditional ways of family and life? I’m supposed to fight for a nation that considers my values and faith to be intolerable and even hate speech?”
“Our country really lost something when the draft was abolished. Military serviced served as a touchstone – a common experience and bond that almost every young man had in common. People my father’s age – didn’t go around “thanking” each other’s for their service – instead it was: “What did you do in the war?” Military service also instills a love of country and civic mindedness. People tend to care about that with which they have investment. And – one other thing – for young men, military service teaches you that you are nothing special. You get cold, hungry, scared, lonely – just like the next guy. That is an invaluable lesson for a young man to learn, at a point in life when most boys think the world revolves around them. The military knocks that down real quick and teaches responsibility, commitment, teamwork at an age when most kids today are just iPhone obsessed narcissists!”
“As a third generation career military officer (retired) I would not recommend a military enlistment to any of my family. What was once proud organizations providing the legitimate defense of our nation has become a political tool for the indoctrination of our youth and country. We send our troops to all corners of the world to stick America’s nose into issues that have no relevance to our national security and defense. We are not the world’s policeman. A review of the countries that were once under the control of our current enemies (Russia and China) shows a profound hatred of those countries once freed. Our first president George Washington warned of entangling alliances and the application of “favored nation” to countries of the world. The mission of our military should be to defend America – not everyone else in the world.”
“Most liberals see the military as a bastion of white male conservative thought and, with some success, by politicization, have been able to purge those they have labeled as extremists. The woke agenda that the Pentagon has promoted serves as an indication that the administrative state fears the military and needs to politicize it in order to be able to neuter its command structure less they someday “cross the Rubicon”, their greatest fear. And Gen Z’ers are far from stupid. The message they have received because of this attempted subjugation is that the military may no longer be able to offer a viable alternative, certainly not financially and certainly one that no longer offers inherent comradery, lifelong associations and pride.”
“If we spent more of our time building a great military, based on willingness to defend this Country versus what sign to put on a restroom, we would be much better off.”
Army intelligence veteran: “These wars of choice by the United States have nothing to do with our defense and everything to do with America maintaining and extending its empire across the globe. The wars are not meant to end as we leapfrog from one to another. The goal is to keep the money flowing to the military-industrial complex and the oligarchs in our country that control it. It’s not about freedom, democracy, Mom, and apple pie as I’ve stated many times before. It’s pure power politics played by the war-mongers currently in control of our government for their benefit to the detriment of the rest of the nation. Military recruiting is down because more and more Americans are finally waking up to the sorrows of empire and they want nothing to do with it. It’s not that there are a multitude of differences between the kids in the 70s and those of today. The difference today is that people have a lot more information about the inner workings of their government and they don’t like what they see.”
“The idea that Special Operations can and will fight our coming wars is a fallacy. War is fought and won by Joe Snuffy putting a short sword on his rifle, getting up out of his hole, and going over to the enemy and killing, wounding, or capturing the enemy. The Current generation has two problems one is a physical, mental, or sociological problem with serving in the military. The second problem is the politicization of the military, where ideological adherence is more important than the training of our Service Members. The Services are made up of families who serve, my father served, I served, my son served but my grandchildren will not under the present administration.”
“It’s not just obesity and mental standards that are hurting recruiting. Young Americans realize that their incompetent leaders do not have the best interests of themselves or their country in mind. All the hero talk from the Afghanistan and Iraq debacles has worn thin as the kids are no longer willing to be cannon fodder for the oligarchy that runs our country. Americans have lost trust in their government, and this has fueled their distrust of the military. Many citizens finally realize that the United States is one colossal plutocracy that doesn’t represent them. It represents multi-national corporations, oligarchs in Ukraine, despots in the Middle East, totalitarian governments in Asia, and murderous defense contractors in the United States. Military recruiting is down and the military is in disarray because people are finally realizing that the emperor has no clothes and he’s been naked for a long, long time.”
“For a generation that has grown up in a time of American Imperialism, endless wars, multiple economic crises, and declining hope for a future like their parents, it’s not shocking that Pro-American sentiment is at an all-time low. To many young people, the military is seen as just a meat grinder that doesn’t offer the same incentives it once did. I see a lot of people complaining about the military being too “woke” and I’m sure for some that’s the case, but for many others it’s seen as a brutal force of imperialism that lacks all of the ideals that I see older generations describing it as. The military as such faces a two sided problem: to half it’s too woke and political, and to others it’s inherently a force for bad in many parts of the world – both cause a rejection by different members of Gen Z.”
“Would you join an organization that routinely sends you to the far reaches of the world to be shot at, killed, maimed, and insulted by forcing you to fight with self-imposed handicaps then brings what’s left of you home and abandons you to whatever charity agrees to help you out? And oh by the way, the places where you fight are no better off when you leave than they were before? Not to mention the emphasis on whatever crazed politics happen to be currently in vogue?” –Navy veteran, medical doctor
“Today is 2 years since the Afghan debacle. Biden is the cause of that fiasco that killed 13 young service members. When they came home, coffins passing, Joe is looking at his watch. Military family here and we advised our children not to join.”
“After two decades of “forever” wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the next generation takes a serious look at serving in the military and says “Naw, I think I’ll pass.” Good for them.”
In response to a left-leaning young person’s comment:
“Wokeism is an ideology that classifies and treats people based on principles of (1) identity politics and (2) an oppressor-oppressed dynamic.
Identity politics differentiates people based on various identity “markers” – race, ethnicity, sex, gender identification, immigration status, etc.
The oppressor-oppressed dynamic differentiates people based on whether they are oppressors or oppressed.
Wokeism combines these two principles to create the concept of intersectionality, under which people can have overlapping identities that affect their standing in society. T
he numerous possible permutations of intersecting identities, combined with the ever-evolving identities imagined by wokesters, can obviously complicate the rankings of the members of the oppressed class.
Finally, wokeism is authoritarian in that it believes in imposing its ideology on people, by coercion (see, e.g., cancel culture) or by force (see, e.g., lawless activity to suppress speech that is deemed inconsistent with wokeness).
Wokeism obviously runs afoul of various, longstanding principles of American life, history, and law (such as section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution), but that appears to be of no concern to wokesters and their enablers, including their many enablers in the Democratic Party.”
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