Americans Show Record Low Approval for Military While US Boosts Aid to Ukraine, Israel
18:47 GMT 16.10.2023 (Updated: 19:11 GMT 16.10.2023)
© AP Photo / The U.S. Army
Subscribe
A former US military commander told Sputnik that the more weapons the US sends to other nations, the more it hurts its own readiness and training. The crisis comes at a time that military morale and public perceptions of the armed forces are both at historic lows.
Recently, a former senior US Army officer was the latest to raise the alarm about the impact of US military aid for Ukraine on the readiness status of American armed forces. Retired Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc told US media the program had “overstretched” US abilities, limiting its ability to intervene in other places, such as Israel, where the yearslong conflict with Hamas was renewed earlier this month.
The US military has sent some $46 billion worth of equipment to Kiev since February 2022, including ammunition, armored vehicles, and aircraft either from its own stocks or those of its allies, which it has then pledged to “backfill” afterward.
After Hamas started firing thousands of rockets toward Israel last week, overwhelming Israel’s Iron Dome air defense systems, the US also stepped in to replenish their supply of Tamir missiles, as well as shipping thousands of rifles to arm Jewish settlers in the West Bank, where fortified Jewish-only settlements have been founded among older Palestinian towns.
“I would agree with that assessment,” international consultant retired US Army Lt. Col. and Earl Rasmussen told Sputnik on Monday about Balduc’s comments. “ I think we're overcommitted and we've got readiness concerns as well and training concerns.”
“I think we've been overstretched for a while. Our recruiting goals are not being met, some of the policies have changed,” he noted, adding that on “that equipment side, when you're siphoning it off and you're sending it to other places, you're also at the same time degrading your training opportunities at home. I think we've got tensions between our allies, especially within NATO, there's the inner tensions going on as a result of the conflict in Ukraine and some of the policies.”
11 October 2023, 00:26 GMT
Low Approval Rating
The readiness crisis comes at a time that the US military overall is suffering from its lowest approval ratings and morale in decades, following the disastrous end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, which saw the Taliban* seize power from the US-allied government in Kabul even before US forces had withdrawn.
A Gallup poll conducted in June found that 60% of members of the American public who were polled expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the US military - the lowest numbers recorded since 1997 and part of a continuous decline over the last five years. The decline was registered among Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike.
Chronic Staffing Issues
That parallels an ongoing recruitment and retention crisis across the US military branches. Last year, the US Army missed its recruitment goal by some 15,000 soldiers - essentially an entire infantry division - and this year expects ao 10,000-soldier shortfall. The Air Force and Navy also expect similar recruitment shortfalls this year.
In the Navy, recruitment and retention issues have contributed to a chronic understaffing problem onboard ships, destroying morale and contributing to a series of maritime accidents in recent years, such as several collisions between US Navy warships and civilian vessels.
One report by the Military Times in 2014 was titled “America’s Military: A Force Adrift” and described “morale indicators on the decline in nearly every aspect of military life.” A US Navy survey of commanders’ morale in 2017 following one such collision recorded one sailor on a US cruiser describing the mood on the vessel: “it feels like a race to see which will break down first, the ship or its crew.”
While many suggested that recruitment troubles were caused by a problem of “wokeness” in the military. However, the most recent Monitoring the Future poll stated that just 5% of would-be recruits indicated this was the reason they haven’t joined, with its data indicating the problem is actually more liberal youth being deterred by changing social attitudes about military service.
14 October 2023, 19:11 GMT
“I would say it's more of the political policies and political directions that are influencing that perspective versus the military itself,” Rasmussen told Sputnik.
“There's more and more of a questioning of our foreign policy and the extent that our military are getting involved [overseas],” he explained. “I would say most people still respect the military, but perhaps some of that has diminished as a result of our - not necessarily as a result of the military, but more of the political policies that are being made and the use of the military that those policies are calling for.”
“I think the military itself, as most people in the military, from my experience, are very patriotic, are very, very supportive, and believe strongly in the country. But sometimes you're called to do missions that maybe are not very popular, and they may not be popular within the military either, and definitely not within the population,” he said, adding that the Biden administration had not paralleled its ramping up of tensions with other nations with an increase in pro-military messaging, which can also affect the public’s perception.
Attempts to counter these attitudes by lowering recruiting standards have only created more problems, with a spike in sexual assaults being credited to the decision. These include waivers for English language proficiency, high school degrees, medical conditions, and even criminal records, according to experts.
Rasmussen noted that service members being “treated differently” can contribute to recruitment and retention problems by creating discipline issues and projecting an image of the service as not including people like them.
19 September 2023, 01:25 GMT
“I've never seen a more rapid shift in the environment in the military than I have in the last three years,” he said.
“We're not meeting our recruiting goals. We're not meeting our objectives here. We've seen a recent shift in policies as well. There's certain problems within the discipline of the Army … if you're treated differently and stuff like that, that creates a problem. You have to also look at: who are the main people we’re targeting for enlistment and for service and how will policies affect them or affect their openness to serve?”
“If I'm coming into the military, I'm expecting one thing, and expect to, you know, put my life down for my country. But, if my policies are not really addressing needs of the country or strategic needs or threats to the country, and I'm being wherever else and my training is not adequate, and then I have policies being implemented that I don't necessarily agree with … then you've got a problem in that,” he said.
“Also my understanding [is] they've done increased [screening] on security threats and are actually asking - I don't know if it's true - they're asking political-type questions. So now I'm shaping my armed forces based on political awareness: are they liberal, or they conservative or whatever. Then people are going: ‘Do I want to be here? Do I want to join? Do I make a career? Do I stay in?’ You start to make people question that much more, especially when they don't see a direct relationship to their own values and to their own needs,” Rasmussen explained.
*The Taliban is under United Nations sanctions for terrorist activities
