[Not Just Unenthusiastic, But Incapable:
The New Yorker's Dexter Filkins does a deep dive in the US armed forces' recruiting crisis. He wonders if the main problem is what the military has become, or what the country has. Excerpts:
In 2022 and 2023, the Army missed its recruitment goal by nearly twenty-five per centabout fifteen thousand troops a year. It hit the mark last year, but only by reducing the target by more than ten thousand. The Navy has also fared badly: it failed to reach its goals in 2023, then met them in 2024 by filling out the ranks with recruits of a lower standard; nearly half measured below average on an aptitude exam. The Army Reserve hasn't met its benchmark since 2016, and the ranks are so depleted that active-duty officers have been put in charge of reserve units. Some experts worry that, if the country went to war, many reserve units might be unable to deploy. A U.S. official who works on these issues put it simply: "We can't get enough people."
Readers of this newsletter will be familiar with the claims that the military's embrace of DEI has had a demoralizing effect, particularly on recruiting. The Filkins piece shows that the problem is not restricted to DEI:
On the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order banning D.E.I. initiatives in the federal government. He also fired the head of the Coast Guard, Admiral Linda Lee ***an, in part because she supported such programs. But many of the people charged with filling out the ranks of the U.S. military suggest that these moves will not reverse a trend decades in the making. Recruiters are contending with a population that's not just unenthusiastic but incapable. According to a Pentagon study, more than three-quarters of Americans between the ages of seventeen and twenty-four are ineligible, because they are overweight, unable to pass the aptitude test, afflicted by physical or mental-health issues, or disqualified by such factors as a criminal record. While the political argument festers, military leaders are left to contemplate a broader problem: Can a country defend itself if not enough people are willing or able to fight?
Filkins writes about how few Americans today are engaged in military life, or even know much about our armed forces. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were disproportionately fought by members of the working class. And this is what those wars did to some of those soldiers:
Last summer, the members of Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, Eighth Marines, gathered at a resort outside Houston for their first reunion since leaving Iraq. In 2004, Bravo Company led the assault on Fallujah, in what became the war's bloodiest battle, and the unit suffered horrific casualties. One of the members, Christian Dominguez, told me that the survivors at the reunion felt a pervasive anguish. "Everyone I went to Fallujah with has a deep sense of guilt," he said. "No one is close anymore. It's the guilt. So many good guys died." Many of his fellow-marines experienced significant trauma, Dominguez said. Since coming home, the most troubled of them had turned to painkillers, alcohol, and even meth.
The feeling among many veterans is that both wars were futile, and that the country essentially forgot them once they were over.
And:
Vice-President J. D. Vance was deployed to Iraq to work in public affairs, and says that it profoundly shaped his views about foreign policy. "I served my country honorably, and I saw when I went to Iraq that I had been lied to," he said on the Senate floor last year. Legislators had convened for a debate over sending military aid to Ukrainean idea that Vance rejects. "I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another," he has said. He and Trump campaigned on a promise to scale back America's foreign entanglements. The message suited the public mood: after the bitter experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan, few Americans seem to have the appetite to send tens of thousands of troops overseas.
(Side note: Are you listening, President Trump? No American soldier should have to risk his or her life to turn Gaza into a real-estate development project!)
Surprisingly (to me), Filkins does touch on the DEI problem. Here he talks to a Latina he calls "Jane," who is a Coast Guard cadet:
But Jane told me that she and many of her colleagues saw both the (Covid vaccine) mandate and the D.E.I. training they received as evidence of overbearing political leadership. Of the seven cadets who were expelled, Jane said, five were minorities. "We were all abiding by their crazy D.E.I. narrative," she said. "And we were basically the people they were preaching about." Still, she remained in the force. "I fell in love with the Coast Guard," she said.
The backlash against these policies has been especially pronounced among veterans, whose families have historically provided the largest share of recruitsand who tend to be more politically conservative. A YouGov survey conducted for Owen West, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense, and Ken Wallsten, a professor at California State University, found that the proportion of veterans who would recommend enlisting dropped from eighty per cent to sixty-two per cent in five years. Many cited a "mistrust of political leadership" and "the military's D.E.I. and other social policies" as major concerns; nearly all opposed racial quotas in the officer corps. Retired officers accused the Biden Administration of injecting politics into an institution that is designed to be apolitical. "There is no officer or leader or commander in the military that isn't for diversity and inclusion," said Rod Bishop, a retired Air Force general who co-founded a group called STARRS, dedicated to countering the military's D.E.I. programs. "They're just another reason not to join."
… Bryen told me that, during her years of service, higher-ups often delivered lectures about racism and homophobia, which most of her comrades regarded as unnecessary. "If you look at the military over time, it's always been inclusive," Bryen said. "No one cares about what you look like, or whether you're gay. When the bullets are flying, you don't have time to worry about pronouns."
Filkins also addresses the readiness capacity of the military, not only in terms of lack of personnel, but an absence of adequate industrial manufacturing capacity. Perhaps the most important problem, the piece says, is that the military is trying to recruit from a population that does not want to serve, and that is too fat and dumb to serve effectively.
Having read the report, it seems clear to me that onerous DEI programs are hurting, but even if we get rid of them as Trump has done that will solve only a small part of the problem. Sorry to perseverate on the stupid Gaza takeover initiative, but this is exactly the kind of thing that would cause me to discourage any of my children from serving. A close relative of mine, a working-class conservative, won a medal for his service in Iraq. When I asked him once what he thought of the war, his answer was short and simple: "A waste." I had hoped that Trump in the White House would be a respite from the Forever War machine. Now, I doubt it.] -Rod Dreher
