Why can't the Army recruit enough people to maintain its strength?
All the advanced weapons mean little if enough motivated Americans don't enlist:
The U.S. Army problems with finding enough new recruits to maintain its current strength of 1.1 million (480,000 active and 620,000 reserves) are getting worse. The number of troops will shrink at least 10,000 this year and up to 20,000 next year. The losses are disproportionately hurting the active-duty combat forces. The army blames covid19 on increasing the number of applicants rejected for being overweight, low test scores or drug use. Covid19 closed many high schools for two years and made it difficult to exercise but easy to eat more junk food and spend more time on the Internet. Not mentioned are the many desirable young people who do not even consider enlisting because of the military’s new social justice regulations and lectures.
Something is seriously wrong given that through two decades of fighting jihadis in the Middle East the Army could recruit enough to replace losses and expand the Army. But not now, even though Afghanistan is no longer a front because the Biden administration needlessly and humiliatingly lost the war. Notwithstanding administration spin, America screwed the pooch.
Senior leadership denies "woke-ism" is the recruiting problem. I'm willing to consider the possibility that "social justice regulations and lectures" is an image problem rather than a real problem for most enlisted personnel given that I read that Army retention is good despite poor recruiting.
Still, even if that is the case, the fish rots from the head. If wokeness isn't a problem for the enlisted in their day-to-day lives, it may be only a matter of time:
So we have the cadre of commissars for the military in place, now (via Instapundit). I remember when everyone in the Army was green. But perhaps this is an opportunity for "anti-racists" to enlist! With any luck our enemies are even worse. But no, the Army thinks the problem is the media portrayal of military service.
But then again, if a senior leadership woke outlook is the recruiting problem, you'd expect that leadership to deny it, no? The Army is concerned. Is it allowed to be concerned about anything but approved problems?
Perhaps woke leadership more interested in pleasing woke Twitter rather than valuing victory in war isn't the source of the Army recruiting problem. Maybe next year after adjustments (and election results?), this crisis will pass.
Aside from any wokeness concerns, being used as an operational reserve for routine work rather than a strategic reserve for emergencies isn't as appealing. I warned about that in a letter to the editor in 2003 (don't click on the dead Geocities (!) links--you can see the full letter reproduced on July 14 at this recovered July 2003 posts link).
The war on terror nullified my warning by providing higher motivation to serve. Now circumstances are restoring my warning's validity, it seems.
UPDATE: I admit that we don't know if wokeness is harming recruiting even if it seems obviously true from anecdotes and "logic". So I can be persuaded the recruiting problem is not wokeness. I really want this to be one more transitory problem we'll work through. But I'll hardly be shocked if it is true.
UPDATE: "Up or out" pushed our best military enlisted and commissioned leadership out, leaving us with the most technically proficient senior officers ever to lose a war.
NOTE: War coverage continues here.
