US Military Recruiting Woes Stem From Unending Wars, Not Likely to End Soon

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A proposal to allow prospective US military recruits to use calculators during entrance exams will not boost enlistment numbers when the root cause of the problem is America's role in unending wars and poor leadership, experts told Sputnik.

The Department of Defense is considering permitting prospective enlistees to use electronic calculators to enable them to pass the demanding math tests required of recruits, US media reported Monday. Insiders say the proposed move is part of efforts to increase the flow of new recruits as the US Army, Navy and Air Force are all expected to miss their 2023 recruiting goals.

"Anyone who thinks calculators will change what is a 50-year trajectory of decay and rot is, in my opinion, smoking rope," former Pentagon analyst Chuck Spinney told Sputnik.

"The fundamental retention problems magnifying the recruiting dilemma stem from forever wars and [poor] small unit leadership."

Moreover, the establishment of the All Volunteer Force (AVF) a half century ago, he added, has not fixed issues at the top that were evident in the draftee military.

"The AVF has not changed the central fact that the self-centered, careerist officer corps needs to be fundamentally reformed and what is left of the middle class and the rich need to have skin in the game to ensure that this happens. Otherwise... we will continue increasing bonuses and qualification reductions to keep the game going," Spinney said.

Meanwhile, the poor and underclass still make up the bulk of the inductees and become the eventual cannon fodder, Spinney said.

Spinney also said after Vietnam the problems of readiness, retention, and professionalism were blamed erroneously on budget reductions. In fact, he added, budget increases the Pentagon received almost every year since the 1970s changed nothing.

"Throwing money at the Pentagon has made these fundamental leadership problems worse. So the shift from the corrupt draft to the All-Volunteer Force meant that the deeper human causes of our string of collective failures since Vietnam have not been addressed," Spinney said.

Covert Action Magazine managing editor and military analyst Jeremy Kuzmarov said Americans are not willing to die in avoidable conflicts for a government they mistrust.

"The administration policies are making it worse because they are provoking unnecessary wars with Russia and China at the same time and have lied repeatedly to the public so that young people have no trust in their government," Kuzmarov said.

"If the army is used primarily for defensive purposes and to support humanitarian missions, then people will be proud to serve in the army."

Former US Army Military Intelligence officer and political commentator Philip Giraldi, founder and chair of the Council for the National Interest, warned the recruitment crisis was likely to get even more severe as US national educational standards continued to plummet.

"Note particularly how West Virginia University is dropping foreign language courses and creative writing, a trend that will be accelerating throughout the college and university system," Giraldi said.

"Uncle Sam wouldn't be interested in having public education produce well-educated critical thinkers in any event. They might rebel."