How Bad Is It Getting In The Military?

 COMMENTARY

EROSION OF TRUST

Michael Letts writes about retired colonel urging young Americans not to enlist

By Michael Letts
Published March 22, 2024 at 6:45pm

How bad has the U.S. military become that a 31-year veteran, a retired colonel in the Army, is advising teenagers not to join the military?

In a Rumble video, Col. Larry Wilkerson said he told a group of high school students, 

"I recommend none of you 18 and 19 year olds go into the military, because all your military is doing today is being led by people who are insane, infested with lust for money, who want to get out of the military and make seven, eight figures with defense contractors, [and] want war after war after war."

For someone who made the Army his career and risked his life fighting in the Vietnam War, this is a troubling admission.

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Wilkerson agreed. He said, "I'm almost 80 years old. 

I never thought I'd be saying that to young kids."

Yet, what he said about the leadership of the military is correct. They cut the pay and benefits of 57,000 National Guard and Reserves in 2022 because those soldiers didn't want to take the COVID vaccine. 

Eventually, more than 8,000 trained servicemen and woman were discharged from the service.

Then last year, the COVID vaccine mandate was repealed, and the military tried to encourage those discharged members to re-enlist. 

So, after saying, "We don't want you," humiliating those members and sending them away, the military changes its mind.

Would you trust leadership like that to have your back? 

Doubtful. Only 43 of those discharged service members returned.

J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tried to minimize the number of discharged service members, calling it "minuscule" and saying, "It helps put the issue to bed, I hope."

Those discharged service members represented about 6% of the U.S. military at a time when the military can't maintain its numbers. 

So that's 6% less on top of whatever recruitment deficiencies there are.

Not only that, but the military lowered physical, mental and medical standards to allow more people to qualify for recruitment. 

This might make recruitment numbers look better (but still not great), but it doesn't do the recruits any favors. 

What you wind up with are men and women who are not capable of dealing with the strain and discipline of being a member of the military.

The problems with the military run the gamut – from the ill-fit newest recruits, to the self-serving high-ranking officers, to the incompetent commander in chief.

Our enemies don't need to attack us. 

They just need to bide their time and wait for the military to rot from the inside out. 

Then they can just walk in and do whatever they want to our country..

They are actually walking in now through our southern border, but that's a different topic. 

Suffice to say, our enemies are among us, and they can see the problems we having, including with our military. 

They can wait for it to fall apart, or they can find ways to exploit the problems. 

You can bet they are trying to do the latter.

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