We’ve commented on the military’s recruitment difficulties. The Wall Street Journal reports on a factor we haven’t heard much about: Parents, including those who are veterans, are dissuading their sons and daughters from signing up.
The article goes over concerns over the dangers, low pay, poor conditions, post traumatic stress syndrome, and the like. It only briefly mentions something I have heard from several fathers, including an ex-Marine whose family have had Marines for multi-generations: “I don’t want my son to enlist. Today’s military isn’t the same as when I served.”
Those other reasons may have some validity, but they have always been part of the hardship that comes from serving one’s country. What these fathers were objecting to is the “woke military,” the Pentagon’s fixation on feminism, LGBTQ issues, critical race theory, along with all of the other progressive causes and their associated sensitivity-training sessions. In general, these veterans complain about the top brass, including the commander in chief. The humiliating rout of our forces in Afghanistan especially sticks in their craw, with its message that everything these vets went through in that country and in Iraq was all in vain.
What do you think? Would you want your child to enlist in the military?
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