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I think it’s a combination of factors. First off, for more than 2 decades the national teachers unions have been actively opposing the U.S. military recruiting on school campus and have even staged opposing stations against recruiters. You have teachers and school counselors telling students their view of the military (most often completely incorrect or only the worst of the truthful information they have) and strongly pushing university as their future regardless of the student’s actual academic abilities.
Second factor is our nation’s leaders in DC (president and members of congress) who seem to focus on using the military for their social programs or to send them off to fight for foreign nations instead of defending our own nation.
Perhaps "White Lotus" by John Hersey should be required reading. In it, America lost the Yellow War, they marched into her town at night, gathered up the people, took them to the coast to sell them as slaves across the Pacific.
Or today so often on FB, memes of animals in cages dreaming of being free but in the end, reality returns and they are pets in cages. For what some say it should be like for animals, do they or others not realize that is what is being faced...............
.............if we don't fight to hold on to what we have? After all, where are they going to go once the USA is no longer a force in this world?
BUT, as said, I am an elder woman with not much time left in this world. It's a damn shame that for all the effort those of us of previous times put into the fight is just being tossed away......but C'est La Vie.
Finally, in the Vietnam War, one General had an answer for COs who said they would not fight but help such was with the wounded.................................Fine, there are some sandbags up on the DMZ that need filling. I agree with that approach. If one is truly a CO and does such, I would respect them for their commitment. If not.....to me, they are just yellow....no puns intended.
What is the Yellow War. Never heard that term and cant find it online anywhere.
What is the Yellow War. Never heard that term and cant find it online anywhere.
It is a subject in the book referenced, of why a foreign power, ie probably China, is able to march into America, gather up people, take them down to the docks, ship them across the Pacific, shave them bald and oil them up, and sell them on the block as slaves. The woman of the story, a teen, is bought and renamed "White Lotus" by her new owner, a woman. That's as far as I got into the book when I read it back in the late 70s.
As to our subject, for whatever reason people don't want to fight, think about what will happen if the country goes down the tubes.
It is a subject in the book referenced, of why a foreign power, ie probably China, is able to march into America, gather up people, take them down to the docks, ship them across the Pacific, shave them bald and oil them up, and sell them on the block as slaves. The woman of the story, a teen, is bought and renamed "White Lotus" by her new owner, a woman. That's as far as I got into the book when I read it back in the late 70s.
As to our subject, for whatever reason people don't want to fight, think about what will happen if the country goes down the tubes.
Are we surprised. You see the caliber of people out there today. Very weak-minded people. I believe this is the downside to being the most globally dominate country for so many centuries. Each generation gets weaker and weaker because they get more and more by doing less and less...they want things handed to them.
There are soo many factors. Our patriotism is horrific...I could not image sitting down during the anthem. Physically I see numerous men with boobs and flabby arms. Work ethic is pathetic. Mentality, people have mental health problems. I could go on and on. Its just paaathetic!
What did the US gain out of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? Many thousands killed and many more permanently injured and for what? Why would a young person today want to join the military today and chance being sent into a foreign country and risk being killed or a life altering injury for a war that in the end, didn't really matter?
By time you get finish your time defending the property and prosperity of the moneyed class you probably won't be able to afford a house yourself.
If one is going to struggle paycheck to paycheck then there are less hazardous ways to do it than to essentially give up your agency.
I'm not knocking anyone who serves, just pointing out that a career in the armed services is a taller order at this juncture given the economic situation and time/lives/money wasted on aggressive wars in the past two decades.
Military pay and benefits aren't that great but I don't think they are that bad either. Then again there have been tons of articles from military news over the past couple years about the number of mil families that are facing food insecurity and relying on food banks and stuff. How many of those cases are ones where they aren't getting enough pay to survive or if they just can't manage their money well, I can't say though. Cost of living has gotten crazy for sure, but maybe if some of these servicemembers weren't out trying to buy $90,000 trucks or getting 29% APR on a loan for a Charger or something, they could stretch their paychecks a little better.
But even with all of what I said in my first post ITT about people growing up during the GWOT seeing how big of a waste it all was (and like I said, I joined under Bush but late enough where the lies about WMDs had been exposed and when I had already seen how little the govt cared about the troops)…
I still don't think it's a poor choice for an 18 year old with no clue what they are going to do after they graduate, no plans to go to college, from a family with no money to get by on or no family business to go into, i.e. a kid who was in my situation when I joined. They'll have steady income, healthcare taken care of, money for food and housing, and all at a time when the risk to their life is a lot lower than it was over the last two decades. Bodies currently aren't being funneled into the ME to get blown up by IEDs; people are instead rotating through "deployments" to stateside bases where missions were moved to after drawing things down at some of the ME bases over the last few years. So even though we are coming off of 20 years of wasted lives, money, and time, it's currently a safer time to be in and learn a trade and find some direction in life. If I was 18 again right now, in the same circumstances I was a couple decades ago, but in today's world, I would still probably join.
All of that said though, I still understand why a kid wouldn't want to join. And I'm not going to be pushing it on my kids (well, my son has developmental disabilities that would keep him from joining, and the way the military handles sexual assaults makes my not want my daughter to join).
Military pay and benefits aren't that great but I don't think they are that bad either. Then again there have been tons of articles from military news over the past couple years about the number of mil families that are facing food insecurity and relying on food banks and stuff. How many of those cases are ones where they aren't getting enough pay to survive or if they just can't manage their money well, I can't say though. Cost of living has gotten crazy for sure, but maybe if some of these servicemembers weren't out trying to buy $90,000 trucks or getting 29% APR on a loan for a Charger or something, they could stretch their paychecks a little better.
But even with all of what I said in my first post ITT about people growing up during the GWOT seeing how big of a waste it all was (and like I said, I joined under Bush but late enough where the lies about WMDs had been exposed and when I had already seen how little the govt cared about the troops)…
I still don't think it's a poor choice for an 18 year old with no clue what they are going to do after they graduate, no plans to go to college, from a family with no money to get by on or no family business to go into, i.e. a kid who was in my situation when I joined. They'll have steady income, healthcare taken care of, money for food and housing, and all at a time when the risk to their life is a lot lower than it was over the last two decades. Bodies currently aren't being funneled into the ME to get blown up by IEDs; people are instead rotating through "deployments" to stateside bases where missions were moved to after drawing things down at some of the ME bases over the last few years. So even though we are coming off of 20 years of wasted lives, money, and time, it's currently a safer time to be in and learn a trade and find some direction in life. If I was 18 again right now, in the same circumstances I was a couple decades ago, but in today's world, I would still probably join.
All of that said though, I still understand why a kid wouldn't want to join. And I'm not going to be pushing it on my kids (well, my son has developmental disabilities that would keep him from joining, and the way the military handles sexual assaults makes my not want my daughter to join).
The problem with money fluctuates, depending on what base you get stationed at. In the Air Force, many bases are in the middle of nowhere, which actually helps people afford the cost of living. But some are located in outrageously expensive areas, and the young airmen with families are struggling big time. Housing is a huge problem, and often, the only affordable housing is incredibly substandard and in a dangerous area.
As far as joining today, if I was 18, I highly doubt I would join up. Reason being is because I would only be reading the negatives and family members would surely be badmouthing the current administration and telling me not to join. But if I could go back, knowing what I know now, I absolutely would join up today.
Lastly, I completely disagree with you about sexual assaults in today’s military. If anything, they hurt young men more who are falsely accused. That pendulum has swung completely the other way. If a woman even feels uncomfortable at all, she can report outside the chain of command and it will be taken very seriously.
Communist China has at last count, over 28,000 active TikTok accounts that are being used to brainwash our young people. With the young generation fawning over Bin Laden and Hitler now, it's no surprise that they don't want to serve in the military.
No parenting, school or church has that kind of power or influence on our young people.
The numbers don't work for the US to attempt universal national service. There are 4 million new 18-year-olds every year. If we put them all into two years of national service, you're talking about increasing the government by 8 million people. Eight million people nearly useless people at that, who will need commensurately more permanent employees just to handle that immense number of trainees.
You bring up a good point...how would the military process 8 million new recruits annually? People have been complaining for decades about the high cost of the military that has just 1.4 million active people. Over 350 installations have been closed in five BRAC rounds since the late 80's. Where are you going to put the 8 million that you have to train, feed, house, uniforms and medical care?
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