‘Once In A Generation Crisis’: Vets Blame Biden’s Focus on Woke Priorities for Low Military Recruitment Numbers

An expert panel of military veterans warned Congress on Tuesday that America is facing a severe military recruitment crisis. The panel blames the Pentagon’s focus on woke priorities that are dividing the nation’s fighting force and leaving it unprepared for a conflict with China.

“Our military is facing the worst recruitment challenge since the advent of the all-volunteer force following the Vietnam war,” said Jeremy Hunt, a former Army captain and chairman of the Veterans on Duty advocacy group during the hearing on military readiness. “We stand amid a once-in-a-generation military recruitment crisis.”

Last year, the Army fell a historic 15,000 soldiers short of its recruitment goal, missing its target by 25 percent. The Air Force, Navy, and Marines also fell short of their recruitment goals last year. This is the direct product of the Biden administration’s decision to prioritize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training in the military, according to Hunt and other veterans who testified at the hearing.

The Biden administration has implemented mandatory Critical Race Theory training and funded a multi-million-dollar Pentagon-wide DEI bureaucracy that focuses on the woke cultural priorities championed by the far left, said Hunt. Soldiers also are trained on how to use correct pronouns and when to offer their fellow service members sex change operations.

The Pentagon has pumped around $114 million into DEI programs, a 30 percent increase from last year. The “corrosive impact” of these programs has sent America’s faith in the military plummeting. Confidence in the military has also hit new lows, according to Brent Sadler, a Navy veteran and senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense. “The nation is weaker for this,” Sadler said.

Meaghan Mobbs, a West Point graduate who serves as a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, told lawmakers that she “would not recommend military service” to her family members due to the Pentagon’s focus on wokeness. Just 9 percent of the nation’s youth expressed a desire to serve in the military, according to figures cited by Mobbs. “This is a grave national security threat,” she said.

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R., Wis.), chair of the House Oversight’s subcommittee on national security, the border, and foreign affairs blamed the Biden administration for damaging the military’s credibility.

“The administration seems to be willfully blinded by how its progressive ideals are affecting military readiness and recruitment,” Grothman said. “The Biden Department of Defense has politicized the U.S. military and harmed its ability to quickly respond to threats to our nation.”

As recruitment plummets, Grothman said, “the Biden administration is more focused on how cadets at military academies use correct pronouns rather to learn how to lead.”

Biden’s Pentagon has pumped around $114 million into diversity, equity, and inclusion programs