Why The Pentagon Recruitment Crisis?

 At early 2022....the Army (more so than the Navy and AF) started to notice a trend on recruitment goals.  By the end of 2022....the goal was missed by 15,000 (for the Army).  The Navy goal at the close of 2022....missed by 8,000.  The AF simply said that they missed their goal by 10-percent.  

What's happening?  It goes to around 9 problems:

1.  Fat chunky kids who are out-of-shape....are being denied entry and told to lose weight.  Some lose the weight....most don't.  You can go and ask what fitness the kids did in the final year or two of school, and it's a 'joke'.

2.  Drug usage up.  Once you explain the list of forbidden drugs.....it becomes a problem.

3.  Covid vax mandates?  As the services were busy kicking folks out....those folks went out and talked about this issue, and bad-mouthed the Pentagon enough....that interest dropped.

4.  People woke up and realized that a year or two of technical training....was a better avenue than a 3-year contract with the Army, or four years with the Navy.

5.  The woke-stuff?  In small rural areas of Iowa and New Mexico....you just aren't going to bump into pronoun people or woke issues.  Once you realize that the military has a woke-theme?  You probably don't want to participate.  

6.  All the trans and sexualized stuff thrown at you?  Just another issue....why join?

7.  Poorly executed military operations (like Afghanistan)....demonstrating poor leaders guiding you?  Why risk your life for them?

8.  The continual war trend for 30-odd years?  The hype has maxed out.

9.  Early (at 20-years) retirement for a lot of people?  I've talked to a couple in the past year....getting up to their 18th/19th year, and their new focus in life was to wrap things up at 20 and leave.  The 'lectures' and poor leadership thrills were impacting on their priorities in life.  So it's not just a recruitment crisis....it's also going to be a fair number of increased people saying 'enough' at 20 years and not carrying on for another two to four extra years.

What's going to happen?  By the end of 2024, I expect the crisis to be in full impact with the Army admitting a 50,000 man recruitment failure.  Navy and Air Force will be lesser issue.  Discussion of mandating or drafting people?  It'll likely be one of the top dozen issues of the 2024 Presidential campaign.  Joe's agenda?  Draft.  Trump's agenda?  Lessen Europe/NATO mission (down to zero).  

To be frank....I don't think anyone will accept the draft to come back.  If you don't want to be drafted...just take up cannabis/marijuana and start talking about your invisible friend.  The system can't be reinvented again.