I've got my doubts that the chance of PTSD is dissuading recruits. It's been with us probably since war has been with us, and has never dissuaded folks before. In the Civil War it was diagnosed as "the soldier's heart". in WWI it was "shell shock", "battle fatigue" in WWII, and transitioned from "the thousand meter stare" to "PTSD" in Vietnam, and that's been the name since then. It has always been with us, and always will be, but it's never stopped anyone from enlisting before.
Maybe in a few cases, where direct contact was involved. For example, my son was in ROTC, and gung-ho to sign up at his earliest opportunity. All his role models had been fighters at one time or another, so he was all about it. One evening, we were watching a war movie together, and I got blindsided. One of the characters got shot in the throat and bled out while the rest of his team was frantically trying to keep him from bleeding out. That cut a little close to the bone, and I started crying. Not big 'ol "ugly crying", just some tears running down my face and an inability to speak for a minute. So I got up and went into the kitchen for a cup of coffee, to buy time to pull my shit back together. When I came back, he was staring at me like I'd grown a second head. He'd never seen me cry before, but had enough presence of mind not to mention it then. It just shocked him. About 3 days later, he announced to me that he was abandoning his military plans, and when I asked why, he just said "I saw what it did to you" and left it at that.
But in most cases, I don't think the danger of PTSD is a big factor.
Ditto the job market - I don't think that has much bearing on it. Unemployment is "low" because folks have exhausted their unemployment benefits, which are what that number is calculated on. There are not more people working, there are just fewer people eligible for benefits now, artificially deflating the numbers.
I personally think the main problem is the military "going woke". Kids do dumb things - that's how we learn - but they are not stupid. They know that the job of the military is to kill folks and blow shit up, and that it is not meant to be a social club where feelz matter. Who the hell wants to join a military that might get orders any day to engage the enemy by poking flowers into their gun muzzles so that they get good feelz and lose? They know the enemy ain't buying that shit and that the current military "doctrine" is a one-way ticket to Valhalla without a sword, fighting the enemy with bouquets while they use bullets coming your way.
Furthermore, many are starting to get the idea that the military "going woke" is meant to grow a more pliable military that will eventually be turned against it's own citizens after sufficient woke indoctrination. No one wants to shoot granny just because she's bitching about the good>>bad old days, so why volunteer for an organization slowly being geared up for that very thing?
Who wants to join a military where the upper echelons (BidenHarris, /"General" Milley, Lloyd Austin, etc.) can be SEEN to be snuggling and cuddling with the enemy while simultaneously demonizing half of their own citizens?
Who wants to be a forced lab rat for Pfizer?
Who wants to go fight for a Commander in Chief and various other "leaders"who won't fight for them?
Recruiters have a lot of problems to surmount, and none of those problems are being addressed. They are instead being exacerbated. Until they fix the woke-broke military and determine which direction is "FRONT-TOWARDS ENEMY", they will continue experiencing the same problems. It's not a lack of patriotism in our youth, it's a lack pf patriotism in our leadership. Who wants to work for dumbasses who blow the enemy rather than cutting his throat?
I know several people who have recently retired from the military, and every one of them says the military is becoming something they didn't sign up for, so they got away while the getting was good. And that is over and above the masses of soldiers who got the boot for refusing to be guinea pigs for Pfizer and Moderna.
Starting to conscript again will not fix it, either. all that will do is swell the ranks with masses of malcontents who can see through their bullshit. The wokesters would be shooting themselves in the foot by conscripting in this day and age.
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Maybe in a few cases, where direct contact was involved. For example, my son was in ROTC, and gung-ho to sign up at his earliest opportunity. All his role models had been fighters at one time or another, so he was all about it. One evening, we were watching a war movie together, and I got blindsided. One of the characters got shot in the throat and bled out while the rest of his team was frantically trying to keep him from bleeding out. That cut a little close to the bone, and I started crying. Not big 'ol "ugly crying", just some tears running down my face and an inability to speak for a minute. So I got up and went into the kitchen for a cup of coffee, to buy time to pull my shit back together. When I came back, he was staring at me like I'd grown a second head. He'd never seen me cry before, but had enough presence of mind not to mention it then. It just shocked him. About 3 days later, he announced to me that he was abandoning his military plans, and when I asked why, he just said "I saw what it did to you" and left it at that.
But in most cases, I don't think the danger of PTSD is a big factor.
Ditto the job market - I don't think that has much bearing on it. Unemployment is "low" because folks have exhausted their unemployment benefits, which are what that number is calculated on. There are not more people working, there are just fewer people eligible for benefits now, artificially deflating the numbers.
I personally think the main problem is the military "going woke". Kids do dumb things - that's how we learn - but they are not stupid. They know that the job of the military is to kill folks and blow shit up, and that it is not meant to be a social club where feelz matter. Who the hell wants to join a military that might get orders any day to engage the enemy by poking flowers into their gun muzzles so that they get good feelz and lose? They know the enemy ain't buying that shit and that the current military "doctrine" is a one-way ticket to Valhalla without a sword, fighting the enemy with bouquets while they use bullets coming your way.
Furthermore, many are starting to get the idea that the military "going woke" is meant to grow a more pliable military that will eventually be turned against it's own citizens after sufficient woke indoctrination. No one wants to shoot granny just because she's bitching about the good>>bad old days, so why volunteer for an organization slowly being geared up for that very thing?
Who wants to join a military where the upper echelons (BidenHarris, /"General" Milley, Lloyd Austin, etc.) can be SEEN to be snuggling and cuddling with the enemy while simultaneously demonizing half of their own citizens?
Who wants to be a forced lab rat for Pfizer?
Who wants to go fight for a Commander in Chief and various other "leaders"who won't fight for them?
Recruiters have a lot of problems to surmount, and none of those problems are being addressed. They are instead being exacerbated. Until they fix the woke-broke military and determine which direction is "FRONT-TOWARDS ENEMY", they will continue experiencing the same problems. It's not a lack of patriotism in our youth, it's a lack pf patriotism in our leadership. Who wants to work for dumbasses who blow the enemy rather than cutting his throat?
I know several people who have recently retired from the military, and every one of them says the military is becoming something they didn't sign up for, so they got away while the getting was good. And that is over and above the masses of soldiers who got the boot for refusing to be guinea pigs for Pfizer and Moderna.
Starting to conscript again will not fix it, either. all that will do is swell the ranks with masses of malcontents who can see through their bullshit. The wokesters would be shooting themselves in the foot by conscripting in this day and age.
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’