Fewer Americans Are Interested In Fighting Wars For The Regime

Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

Good news: the Pentagon is having trouble meeting recruiting goals, and an increasingly small portion of the American public is interested in fighting wars for the regime. 

It’s been apparent for several years now that the Pentagon is having serious trouble with recruitment.

In September, the New York Post reported that “Much of the military will fall short of recruitment goals by as much as 25% this year.”

2023 is the first time the Air Force has missed its recruiting goals since 1999. 

Moreover, a Gallup poll in June found confidence in the military declined for a sixth consecutive year, to 60 percent.

It doesn’t look like a major war will induce most Americans to sign up either.  For example, Newsweek reports today: 

A poll by the research institute Echelon Insights of 1,029 likely voters, conducted between October 23-26, found that 72 percent of those asked would not be willing to volunteer to serve in the armed forces were America to enter a major conflict, compared with 21 percent who would. The remainder were unsure. The poll was conducted after Hamas led an unprecedented militant attack on Israel on October 7.

Note how the question is phrased. It’s not asking people if they would fight to defend their communities. Rather, the question is whether or not one would be willing to volunteer to fight in “a major conflict.”  Few are apparently interested, and why should they be? It has become abundantly clear over the past 25 years that the elective wars fought by the US regime have nothing to do with the defense of Americans or their communities. The US bombing of Libya and Syria has had nothing to do with keeping Americans safe. The multi-decade wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had nothing to do with keeping Americans safe.  After all, the US lost the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, with no invasion of the United States imminent as a result. In fact, those wars likely increased the danger to  Americans by destabilizing the region—the US invasion made ISIS possible—and making more enemies for the US around the world. 

Sadly, every American who died in those conflicts died for little except to enrich local warlord “allies” in those countries made rich by suitcases full of US taxpayer dollars.

In 2023, the “we’re fighting them over there so they don’t fight us here” slogan only works on the most gullible of Americans, and fewer than ever are falling for it. That worked well in 2001. Most have now caught on to the ruse. 

On the other hand, it’s worth noting that a majority of Americans still say they’d volunteer to fight if the United States were actually invaded. Newsweek continues:

At the start of October, a survey of 1,000 likely voters conducted by J.L. Partners for the Daily Mail found that while an overall majority of Americans said they would die fighting for their country were the U.S. invaded…

Discerning potential recruits have figured out the reality which is that joining the military most likely means being shipped 10,000 miles away to do the bidding of wealthy arms dealers, White House officials, and uniformed politicians—known as Pentagon generals. At any time these political cliques could ask ordinary American soldiers to do any of the following: 

• Provide security guarantees to the dictators of Saudi Arabia.

• Fight to prop up the Ukraine regime, known to be one of the most corrupt governments on earth. 

• Fight in a war against Iran because some Washington interest groups don’t like that country. 

Of course, most service members won’t ever be in combat. They’ll spend their time doing more mundane tasks—such as computer programming or logistics planning—to justify a defense budget that now nears a trillion dollars per year. 

One thing that is clear to most, however, is that virtually none of this has anything to do with defending the United States from invasion, so most young people who have real talent, skills, and plans know they can contribute to the community is far more useful ways. Ordinary nurses, truckers, roofers, private-school teachers, and insurance salesmen do far more net good for their communities than any member of the military who spends his time guarding a hill of sand in Syria or protecting the dictators of Kuwait. 

If the US military wants to see a return of enthusiasm for enlistment, there are some things they could do:

• End all foreign deployments of National Guard troops, and make the National Guard a strictly domestic defense force controlled by state governments. 

• End all US military foreign deployment to any place where the US Congress has not formally declared war against the local regime. 

• Stop fighting elective wars that have nothing to do with the defense of Americans in America. 

Of course, doing those things would put significant obstacles in the way of the regimes that seeks to ever expand an de facto American global empire that reserves to itself the right to invade or bomb any country on earth at any time for any reason.