What the Data Says About the Military's Recruiting Crisis
By Kevin Wallsten
February 23, 2023
The U.S. military is facing an “unprecedented” recruitment crisis, with most branches of the armed forces failing to meet their enlistment goals in 2022. This recruitment crisis is partly a function of the fact that so few young people are now able to serve due to obesity, educational deficiencies, mental health problems, or criminal records. In fact, “only 23% [of American youth] are physically, mentally, and morally qualified to serve without receiving some type of waiver.”
The recruitment crisis is not entirely a consequence of these metastasizing physical, mental, and moral problems, however. It is also a direct result young people’s growing unwillingness to serve. The most recent estimates “show that only 9% [of America’s youth] are even interested in military service.”
Why are so few young people willing to serve in the military? According to some conservatives, the Pentagon’s increasingly “woke” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies are alienating the groups most inclined to serve in the armed forces (namely, conservative, Southern, and rural whites). Consider, for example, Jimmy Byrn’s recent article in the Wall Street Journal. Byrn writes, the Pentagon’s “woke” policies “have amounted to a form of antirecruitment for prospective enlistees. The Pentagon is appealing to activists at the expense of those most likely to serve. The military has historically drawn an outsize proportion of recruits from conservative Southern states.” Similarly, Thomas Spoehr argues that: “Wokeness in the military…acts as a disincentive for many young Americans in terms of enlistment...Is anyone surprised that potential recruits—many of whom come from rural or poor areas of the country—don’t want to spend their time being lectured about white privilege?”
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2023/02/23/what_the_data_says_about_the_militarys_recruiting_crisis_883427.html
