According to officials at the Pentagon, the military is falling way behind on its recruitment goals and expects the trend to continue into next year.
The Army is facing a gap of being short 10,000 soldiers this year, with an expected shortage of 21,000 active-duty troops in 2023.
Last week during a Senate Armed Service Subcommittee hearing on the issue, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) blamed President Biden for the shortage of military recruits.
“After watching this administration’s blunder in Afghanistan,” said Tuberville, “and tossing 20 years of sacrifice down the drain; why would a veteran encourage their child to sign up?”
The senator said Biden’s recent rhetoric is discouraging young Americans from wanting to join the armed forces.
“This administration doesn’t inspire our youth about America,” he argued. “It paints our service members as extremists, white supremacists, but are surprised that only 9% of young people even want to serve. That’s a small, small pool.”
Tuberville reiterated that this is a serious national security issue.
“Faith in our military has collapsed,” he said. “For decades, our military was the most trusted organization in America. Under President Biden, faith in our military has cratered [at] 45%.
“What we have is a national security emergency.”
He also called out the current military leaders for not focusing on inspiring more young people to sign up.
“I’ve reviewed the list of speaking engagements for senior leaders at the Pentagon,” he said, “and could find no trace, zero, of anyone speaking publicly about recruiting. The leaders of our military, but there were plenty of speeches on climate change, pride month, and global water security. What is going on here? What actions have the DOJ leaders taken to solve this crisis?”
Tuberville also believes the recent Biden executive order forgiving student loan debt does not help the military in its recruiting efforts.
“To add insult to injury,” he said, “the White House has now decided to cancel up to $20,000 of student loans per borrower. Student loans and the GI Bill are two of the biggest and most successful incentives of military recruitment.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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