Dakota Beacon

Something inside the US military’s recruitment system has clearly failed. Not only have recruiting goals been missed, but there has also been a failure to recruit successfully among the nation’s largest ethnic group. More about that in a moment.

At the close of FY 2023, only the Marine Corps -- the smallest Defense Department service except for the Space Force -- met both active-duty and reserve recruiting goals. The Army, the largest of the services, performed the worst falling short by 15,319 (24%) of its active-duty goal even after lowering its target by 9,000. Just 9% of Americans aged 16-21 expressed a willingness to consider a military career down from the pre-pandemic norm of 13%.

However, finding enough young people qualified to serve will be a moot point if they are not willing to serve in the first place. But this reveals only half of the problem. The other half constitutes retaining good people on active duty and stopping the hemorrhaging.

For decades, the military (an authoritarian society) has been used as a petri dish for social experimentation. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) becomes the latest rendition. In hindsight, decades of experience have shown that social engineering programs forced upon a volunteer military has done little to enhance combat effectiveness or willingness to join. Social engineering programs have largely been a distraction, taking away from valuable training time. Young people volunteer to become part of a combat team. They do not join to be used as lab rats.

What could be more stupid than a military policy forcing equality-of-outcome experiments on something as important as national defense? This is not why people join the military and it will only hurt the recruiting effort.

Failure to meet recruiting goals is one thing. Touting flawed political agendas for ideological purposes is quite another. A poorly thought-out and controversial move incorporates women into the combat arms. The thinking, though not widely publicized, asserts that more women in the military could make up for accession shortfalls. Team cohesiveness has been ignored. That cohesiveness between men and women in combat units is not the equivalent to that of all-male units. Furthermore, the proclaimed fifty-two genders in combat units would be completely preposterous!

Problems in military recruiting stem from much broader societal problems. Disciples of affirmative action, critical race theory, and gender equity have long whittled away at meritocracy. Groups, genders, and races are prioritized -- except for one. White males are placed at a serious disadvantage and are routinely disparaged to the point that merit counts for little. Military service and military recruiting merely reflect a microcosm of the greater society.

There should be no surprise that young white men have become less willing to join in the defense of their nation putting their lives at risk for a society which discriminates against them and blames them for the evils of history – evils which they had no hand in. Young white males are not dumb. They can see that the kingmakers in the ideological parades have no clothes. No one wants to talk about it for fear of being branded a racist. Our legacy media certainly avoids the conversation. But the matter has come to a head with the Armed Forces recruiting fiasco. White men no longer wish to serve a nation that scorns them. The matter has become obvious to everyone -- except the kingmakers who have no clothes.

Endless wars disruptive to any semblance of family life; foreign policy that treats symptoms rather than the problem; social weakness from the bottom up and weak political leadership from the top down; and a political party that forever dishonors the military produces a no-win situation. Too bad. Winning matters. Without it, there is no respect.

When all is said and done, every person sworn into the military takes an oath. “I (____) solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.” No political ideologue should be allowed a “private” interpretation of the Constitution. That is a job for the courts.

Recently, the US Supreme Court ruled to end legal mandates for affirmative action in higher education. That is a good first step for education. But that ruling should extend to other areas of society as well, both public and private. I bet it will happen.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).