If there is a single American who is not concerned and disheartened by the toxic swamp our nation’s politics have become over the last decade, I do not know that person.
Most Americans on both sides of the political aisle seem concerned about what division and name-calling culminating in the violent January 6th insurrection have done to our body politic. Closer to home, families and friends have been so damaged by entrenched feelings about both elected leaders and partisan political positions that some people who once cared for and respected each other no longer do.
If this has happened in your circle, you know what I am talking about, and if it has not, you are fortunate.
It turns out, there may be other measurable costs to our national security.
A Washington Post story late last month reported on the plight of a Toms River, New Jersey 6-person Army recruiting team struggling and failing to meet its monthly quota of 7 recruits from a list of 30 possibilities. The team is hardly alone.
The Army’s overall recruiting goal for 2024 is 55,000 new soldiers, about 10,000 fewer than the prior year’s missed goal. These goals reflect not what Army leaders believe they need, but numbers they believe they can realistically recruit from a shrinking pool. Of our US military services, only the Marines made their 2023 recruiting goals.
Part of the problem reflects demographic realities. Of Americans aged 17-24, only 23 percent meet the Army’s physical, moral, and educational requirements. Obesity is often a factor, as are substance abuse and certain medications. In addition, recruits must pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a challenge for many. About 23,000 prospects are expected to participate in a tutoring course for the ASVAB this year.
Less tangible factors are also at play.
The Toms River leader of the recruiting team, Sgt. 1st Class Dane Beaston, told the Washington Post reporters, Greg Jaffe and Missy Ryan, that he knew he would join the armed services from the moment the Twin Towers collapsed when he was in the 4th grade. Today’s prospective recruits view 9/11 and the wars that followed as history.
While many of our national institutions such as the Supreme Court and public schools have lost public confidence, military services still enjoy the confidence of about 60 percent of Americans. That said, only about 9 percent of young people say they would consider joining the armed services, down from roughly 16 percent two decades ago, despite perks such as educational benefits. Interestingly, as military service becomes more remote for many Americans, 81 percent of Army recruits come from military families.
Army leaders and recruiters understand that asking a young person to join is not like offering them a job. It is asking them to trust our nation’s leaders with their very lives, leaders who often sound like they are at war with each other and their fellow citizens. While our leaders yell at each other about threats coming from our borders and from a potential autocracy, it is understandable that young people on the cusp of their lives might not want to swear an oath to the Constitution of a nation seemingly at war with itself.
Recruiters like Beaston wish our country could “come together.”
The cost of not doing so could be high as the United States and its allies around the world work to deter nations like Iran, North Korea, and China. Secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth, put it to the Washington Post this way.
“If we get too small, our ability to do those things is at risk.”