Polling carried out after the Hamas terror raid on Israel on October 7th found 72 percent of Americans would be unwilling to volunteer to serve in the military if America entered a major conflict, compared to just 21 percent who said they would.
With the U.S. heavily involved in the Israel-Hamas war and the Russia-Ukraine war, still deeply enmeshed in Syria, and the possibility of an Indo-Pacific clash with China, the Echelon Insights findings suggest most Americans hold a more ‘America First’ view of foreign policy than the political establishment.
The U.S. military has shrunk by 39 percent since 1987, and the Army and Air Force both missed their recruitment targets for 2023 by 10,000, while the Navy missed its target by 6,000. The situation could pose significant problems in terms of the country’s war readiness if it persists, with infantry soldiers being relatively easy to train in a crisis but pilots and naval specialists, for example, requiring years of instruction.
Successive military interventions in the likes of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria have yielded questionable results, potentially turning off many recruits.
The traditionally conservative-leaning young people the military has often relied on for manpower may also have been deterred by its intolerant attitude towards unvaccinated Americans in recent years, and senior officers’ promotion of far-left interests such as drag and “white rage”.
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