The US military is having major difficulty finding recruits. New York Times. The problem is worse than it was after the Vietnam War with thousands of open positions waiting to be filled. The situation is so bad that some units are unable to function. The coronavirus pandemic is part of the problem as lingering restrictions prevent recruitment activities while many potential recruits are unwilling to comply with vaccine mandates. Another major problem is that so many young people are unfit for service, with obesity and criminal records being a major problem. 75% of 17 to 25 year olds are unable to serve due to weight, criminal records or medical issues. The worker shortage also has an effect because most recruits now have better options.
My Comment:
This article left out the elephant in the room. Potential military recruits, especially rank and file ones, tend to be conservative. But our current military? It's woke as hell. Why would anyone want to sign up for a woke military that is going to criticize you for your race and gender, make you shower with transgender people and generally oppose everything you believe in?
It's insane that they would expect people to join up under these circumstances. At least in the civilian world, if you say something unwoke you just get fired. In the new woke US military? You can be arrested, imprisoned and rendering totally unemployable with a bad conduct discharge. Why would anyone who isn't totally on board with the woke want to sign up in that kind of system?
I think there is also a general fear that the war in Ukraine would heat up and troops would be sent to fight Russia. Given how terrible the fighting that the war in Ukraine has been I can understand why people would not want to join up. It's not like Russia has done anything to us so it's not like people would want to sign up for a war that isn't about defending America. The scenario is not likely but I do think that it is in the back of recruits minds.
The New York Times mentioned that the pandemic is part of the problem but they got the situation wrong. I don't think that recruiters not being able to be out in the public is the problem. The vast majority of coronavirus restrictions are long gone and it really isn't a factor other than in the bluest of blue states, which most soldiers don't come from anyways.
What the real issue is, and what somehow merited only a sentence in the New York Times article, is the fact that they are requiring vaccines for coronavirus. Vaccines are now very unpopular after they have proven that they don't actually prevent you from getting the virus. And people are rightly worried about getting a reaction to the shot. Plus the young people that are potential recruits are the ones that have the least to worry about from the virus.
Of course the military is massively compounding their issue by requiring these vaccine mandates. Not only are they preventing potentially hundreds of thousands of people from joining, they are pushing out a huge number of soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen just because they don't want to take a risky shot that doesn't seem to help anything anyways. It makes zero sense whatsoever.
The standards situation seems like a solvable one. I don't think they should hire people that have a criminal record or some kind of medical issue. But the obesity situation? That seems like something they could work with. I know back when I was considering a career in the military I was told that my overweight ass could join since they had a program for overweight recruits that would help them slim down. Did that go away? If it did why couldn't it start up again? Or failing that why not have a fitness program that you would complete before basic training? They might have quite a few washouts but it would allow people that would otherwise not be fit to join to sign up.
As for the worker shortage I think that is a problem that is going to solve itself very quickly. There is still a worker shortage for now but that will go away very soon as the country heads into recession. Biden's economic policy has been nothing short of a catastrophe and the only reason there are still open jobs is because so many people checked out during the coronavirus pandemic. But layoffs have already begun and soon people will be begging for a job, with even the military being a possibility for some of them.
Still, I struggle to think about why people would join an institution that hates them. Why would a hard charging and motivated person like to join the military that hates them because of their race, gender and political opinions. Who would want to defend a country lead by people like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi? Who would want to fight a war for stupid reasons in a country that has nothing to do with us instead of defending your own? At least in Iraq and Afghanistan we had an enemy, but now it seems like the real enemy for the people in control of the country are the very people that want to fight and die for them. As long as that is the case most people will avoid the military at all costs.
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