US has smallest military in over 80 years as enlistment hits lowest since 1941
www.mirror.co.uk
The Pentagon said the US army will start the new year off with its smallest band of soldiers since 1941 due to a stark decrease in enlistment, particularly in Gen Z
  • ButtigiegMineralMap@lemmygrad.ml
    39·
    11 months ago

    The incentives they give for people to join are disgusting. “Hey, tired of living in a country that we built to break you down and barely afford to live? Well, I mean if you really want out, you could, idk, maybe join up with the military, get some free healthcare, some money, a Camaro…or you could continue scraping by and hopefully you don’t get sick or injured or miss a few days of work. Just putting options out there for ya, you know, food for thought.” It’s so insidious

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmygrad.mlOP
      251·
      11 months ago

      It’s kind of amusing that the same people who decry places like China for being authoritarian and socialist are basically signing up for the most extreme version of what’s effectively a socialist society in order to escape capitalism.

      • ImOnADiet@lemmygrad.ml
        20·
        11 months ago

        for a bit of hope posting both parties are terrified to reintroduce the draft, i imagine it would lose them elections for at least a generation (if, unfortunately, the US lasts that long at least.)

        • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          21·
          11 months ago

          There’s also the fact that if they did call for draft, how many would actually qualify? Isn’t the US in the middle of an obesity epidemic and mental health crisis?. A few weeks of boot camp is not going to be adequate to get the vast majority of young people into fighting shape, both mentally and physically.

          • ImOnADiet@lemmygrad.ml
            15·
            11 months ago

            I think the mental health stuff would be easier to sidestep if they’re desperate for bodies, and you could easily extend bootcamp and run a very aggressive weight loss program a the beginning as well. But yes, both those things just compound onto the dems/repubs political issue with the draft, and as such i dont think they’ll ever do it short of war with china. I think they’ll continue to focus on wunderwaffen and make it seem like a great indicator of our stength and might when we can safeguard “peace” around the world with 3% lower military numbers every year

            • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
              8·
              11 months ago

              The US could afford a few tricks before that. Better benefits, for example. Maybe a vet program. Maybe recruit graduates and offer them a career in what they actually studied and their loan payments covered while in the military or wiped after 15 years service. If I was $250k in debt with an engineering degree working minimum wage answering phones all day and the military promised me a commission with the engineers, I’d be tempted. I wouldn’t do it now out of principle but when the military offered me a place at officer school to do what I did my degree in, I went to the recruitment place and got a leaflet. (Luckily, I saw the light before signing up.) And I live in a marginally more civilised place than the US.

            • Addfwyn@lemmygrad.ml
              6·
              11 months ago

              Assuming you don’t care about human life at all (and these people don’t) it still made more sense in a time where giving a warm body a gun and pointing them in the right direction would give you at least some results.

              Modern warfare doesn’t quite work like that anymore, you can’t just throw conscripts at enemy positions expecting to break their lines. Just ask Ukraine.

    • Mzuark@lemmygrad.ml
      6·
      11 months ago

      They can’t. No one’s going to fucking show up. Millions of Americans will try to dodge, and boomers throughout the country will be furious that Biden or whoever is trying to send their kids to die on foreign soil.

      • Beat_da_Rich@lemmygrad.ml
        2·
        11 months ago

        And after decades of failed adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria and now witnessing the US response to Israel’s genocide, hardly anyone here of proper age is gonna be willing to fight and die for the ruling class’s profits. The resistance to a US draft now would be enormous, bigger than with Vietnam. Cities would shut down and burn from riots. The US isn’t going to be winning any major overseas land invasion while also having to go to war with its populace at home all across the country. A draft here would be very very difficult for the ruling class to pull off without a seriously successful propaganda campaign, which is becoming rapidly inconceivable as the citizens continue to wake up.

        Just about the only thing that I can see possibly working out in the US’s favor for a draft is if they can pull off a false flag attack of enormous damage.