Our All-Volunteer Military Force Implodes
By Stuart Scheller
February 03, 2023AP
America’s all-volunteer military is slowly shrinking in size and talent despite leadership’s prevention efforts. Without new leadership and ideas, war inevitably becomes the only safeguard against America’s pending military implosion.
The Commandant of the Marine Corps addressed current military recruitment failures in November’s U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings magazine entitled, “Recruiting Requires Bold Changes.” The Commandant identified the American people’s degrading trust in the military as the biggest obstacle to recruitment. Current data supports his statement. According to Gallup, Americans’ faith in military officers has degraded to the lowest levels ever recorded. Yet the Commandant, like most senior military leaders, understands the problems, but lacks the insight and courage to recommend leadership changes. Last month the Assistant Commandant, during a panel on the all-volunteer force, reinforced this observation. Unsurprisingly, the panel never discussed recommendations for changes in leadership, despite the general officer stating, “all options are on the table.”
Recruiting is complicated, but despite what the old guard will have you believe, young Americans are not lazy or stupid. They can sense hypocrisy. On the one hand, military leaders preach higher purpose, sense of duty, honor, and other noble virtues. But with the other hand, they rack up long lists of failures and double standards. There can be no virtuous call to service, if the leadership of the service doesn’t live by its own virtues. Thus, it’s not surprising that only 9 percent of Americans aged seventeen to twenty-four, when surveyed by the Defense Department in 2022, showed a propensity to serve in the military. Is the new generation’s reluctance to join the military based in ignorance and apathy—or wisdom?
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2023/02/03/our_all-volunteer_military_force_implodes_879776.html
