Retired US General Weighs in on Why American Army Numbers Smallest Since 1940

By the end of 2023, there will be only 452,000 active-duty soldiers in the US Army, the smallest force since 1940, Defense News recently reported.

In this vein, the international military news outlet pointed to recruiting shortfalls in the U.S. Army that could result in 3,000 Army Special Operations troops being cut before the end of this year.

There are a number of factors that have contributed to the dwindling strength of the [US] armed forces, Paul E. Vallely, a retired US Army major general and chairman of the Stand Up America US Foundation, told Sputnik.

First and foremost is the COVID-19 pandemic, in which a number of US soldiers were discharged from the army without pay because they didn't want to take the vaccine, according to Vallely.

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"And of course, now they've changed that around, and they're trying to bring those individuals back into the force, but it's not happening. They don't want to come back."

The second factor, Vallely claimed, was "the surrender and withdrawal out of Afghanistan." He argued that "many future soldiers decided they didn't want to go into the armed forces with the poor leadership of some of the generals and admirals."

"I think the third thing is that based on this racial rather than equity type of performance standards, where they're going to select you based on race, rather than your ability to fly an airplane or whatever under what we call the critical race theory, that has to do with DEI, [namely] diversity, equity and inclusion."

The retired US Army major general accused the left wing of the American political system of trying "to judge you based on your racial makeup, rather than on your ability and skill to conduct certain actions required in the military."

"And then you have this diversity trend where they've gone LGBTQ, and young American people, for the most part, don't buy into that. They're not going to go into the Air Force or the Army or Special Forces if there's a transgender person next to them or in the shower and so on. So these are the issues that have affected both re-enlistment and the enlistment of new people."

Vallely remained pessimistic about the Pentagon's hope that putting more money into the recruiting budget will help recruiters bring more people into the Army. "I don't think it's going to have any effect," he remarked.

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Asked if it's safe to say that the coming structural changes in the U.S. Army also reflect the challenges America faces abroad and at home, Vallely pointed to the migration crisis, saying, "What the military has to do is protect our [US] southern border."

"We have thousands coming illegally across our southern border that are financed and supported by the Mexican cartels. So our military has to do something. We can't depend on police or border patrol with the situation now and that's going to be a major challenge for the United States to protect its borders. We have people coming in from all over the world," he added.

Commenting on the impending reduction in Special Operations forces, Vallely emphasized that "there's a lot of other areas that are affected” and that, for example, the US Army”actually is short of pilots."

"The special forces are just a small percentage of the total US armed forces. But they're very critical, for sure. We need to look for new leadership, [and] new generals […] to create a force that can counter any national or international threats to our citizens," the retired US Army major general concluded.