Military Recruitment Is Plummeting: Blame the Pentagon

Lately, military-age males have stayed away from the military in droves. General officers and senior civilians in the Pentagon blame a poor public education system and decades of video games for creating a generation of young men not mentally and physically qualified to serve — and there is certainly some truth to that.

But if senior Pentagon officials want to get to the bottom of the Biden-era recruiting dip, they should look in the mirror and at the picture of the sitting president on the wall of virtually every office in the five-sided wind tunnel in Arlington, Virginia. (READ MORE: What’s a Defense Industrial Base, Lindsay Graham?)

They have created a military culture across the services in which few red-blooded American males want to participate. Many — uniformed and otherwise — claim that their manpower policies are not that much different than those of the Trump administration. They fail to recognize, however, that the difference lies in leadership style and tone.

Democrats Used the Military for Social Experiments

Since the 1960s, Democratic administrations have engaged in a series of social experiments, and nearly all have been disastrous or have resulted in a degradation of military readiness. Perhaps the most egregious of these was the infamous Project 100,000 during the Johnson administration.

Lyndon B. Johnson had a problem during the Vietnam War: There were high unemployment numbers, particularly among young ghetto dwellers, and not enough qualified draftees were being inducted to support his Vietnam adventure. At the advice of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, Johnson directed the DOD to ignore the intelligence grading scores on military aptitude entrance tests to gain at least 100,000 new recruits. Thus, Project 100,000 was born.

In the military, these recruits became known as McNamara’s Morons. The project sent thousands of unqualified draftees — many Black — to Vietnam, where they died in droves. It eased the unemployment and recruiting problems, but at a terrible price. Many of these angry draftees turned to drugs and racial conflict because they realized that they were pawns in a political game.

Fast forward to 2023. The Biden administration is obsessed with diversity, equity, inclusion,  and “firsts” — particularly among underserviced minorities and fringe groups, like LGBTQ+.  If the Navy could find a pregnant, non-binary whale, I would not be surprised if they made an admiral out of it. (READ MORE: Joe Biden, the Totally Non-Senile Alpha Male)

Traditionally, a large proportion of military recruits have had parents who served. This is especially true of kids who grew up in a service environment: My son was one of them. Two decades ago, I enthusiastically cheered him on when he enlisted after 9/11. I would not do so today — and I am apparently not alone. According to the Washington Post, many other veterans are not encouraging their kids and grandkids to serve. Some actively discourage their kids from joining, fearing “woke” indoctrination.

While I would not actively discourage one of my grandchildren from service, if asked, I would point out some serious questions I have regarding the present senior leadership of the military.

Questioning Today’s Pentagon

First, would you trust your life to a senior military leadership that would put you at risk after being told to put political concerns over sound tactics?

This is exactly what happened with the Afghan evacuation in 2021. The military leadership of the nation most likely knew that the secure Bagram air base was a better embarkation point than the vulnerable Kabul Airport. This was a choice made by craven State Department officials for purely political reasons. No senior military officer objected or threatened to resign over this clearly idiotic mission order. To date, no one in the military chain of command has been held accountable, and many are still on active duty. (RELATED: The Military Academies Have Turned Into Woke Wastelands)

Second, would you enjoy having your superiors — whether forced or enthusiastic — indoctrinate you to embrace behavior that directly contradicts the values that your parents and grandparents have tried to instill in you?

Third, do you want to be led by senior military leaders who ascended to their positions by being racial or gender “firsts” or who sacrifice the concept of military honor for political expediency?

I would encourage you to look at our current overweight secretary of defense — a former general — and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and tell me if that is where you want to be 30 years from now.

I sincerely hope that there will be a wave of military reform that will make it possible for me to again encourage my grandchildren and neighbors’ kids to consider a stint in the military or a military career. But I do not see it happening soon. Serious military reform has historically come in the wake of defeat.

Abraham Lincoln went through four generals during the Civil War before he found in Ulysses S. Grant one capable of defeating Robert E. Lee. George Marshall had to ruthlessly purge senior army leadership following early debacles during World War II. The U.S. Army and Marine Corps undertook innovative reforms following our humiliating loss in Vietnam. None of these reforms were accomplished before military incompetence, and political tinkering did serious damage and caused needless casualties.

Joe Biden has the military he wants, but not the one America needs. Our senior Pentagon leaders are unquestioningly obedient and politically correct, but they have also shown themselves to be inept at the strategic and operational levels of war. I do not want any of my family or friends serving under them in a future debacle.

Gary Anderson is a retired Marine Corps colonel. He lectures on alternative analysis at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

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