Majority of Americans Would Not Advise Family Members to Join Military, Poll Finds

Boot Camp

The majority of Americans would not advise their family members to join the military, according to a Defense Priorities/YouGov poll released on Thursday.

Only 37% of respondents would encourage their family to serve in the military, while 63% would not, according to the poll. Several branches of the military have been plagued with recruiting and retention problems in recent years as the Pentagon continues to look for solutions.

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U.S. Quietly Trying to Keep Troops in African Country That Wants to Kick Them Out

American Troops

The U.S. is working behind the scenes with the Nigerien government to negotiate a way to keep U.S. troops in the country after junta leaders declared the American military footprint “illegal,” The Washington Post reported.

The Nigerien government that came to power in July, in a nation historically viewed as an ally and partner in counter-terrorism efforts, announced Saturday plans to end military cooperation with the U.S., according to the Post, citing U.S. officials. Days later, however, “dynamic” talks are underway to determine whether and how the U.S. can retain a military presence in some capacity, even at a reduced level.

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Commentary: European Military Contractor Must Be Punished for Cheating

Members of the military know they must be able to trust everyone in their squad. This trust is earned. That’s why troops drill together, eat together, and live together. It builds confidence and trust.

Of course, they must also be able to trust their equipment. The Army still remembers when its bazookas were useless against Soviet-made tanks during the Korean war. Today’s American warriors don’t want to repeat the same mistakes by using inferior equipment. And when it comes to weapon systems, there is no reason to trust certain contractors — including the European aerospace giant Airbus.

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Commentary: The Steady Decline of Our Once-Beloved Military

The highest echelon of the U.S. military is becoming dysfunctional. 

There are too many admirals and generals for the size of the current U.S. military. It now boasts three times the number of four-star admirals and generals than we had during World War II—when the country was in an existential war for survival and when, by 1945, our active military personnel was almost nine times larger than the current armed forces. 

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Commentary: America Needs to Take China’s Military Threats Seriously

Soldiers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army

During his presidency, Barack Obama, in his infinite wisdom, liked to tell us that wars are passé and publicly chided Russia’s Vladimir Putin for acting like a relic of the 20th century. Privately, Obama seems to have been aware of the extremely dangerous situations he helped create in Iran, Syria, Russia, and China, and told Trump during their 2016 transition talks that war was likely with North Korea.

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Biden May Leave Up to 1,000 Troops in Afghanistan After Withdrawal

After Joe Biden further delayed efforts to withdraw all American military forces from the nation of Afghanistan earlier this year, new reports suggest that the withdrawal will be delayed indefinitely and could leave up to 1,000 troops in the country, according to CNN.

The report comes from an anonymous administration official, who claimed that the residual forces would stay behind to ostensibly secure the U.S. embassy and the airport in the capital city of Kabul. However, another anonymous official with the Department of Defense claimed that the residual forces left behind would not exceed 650.

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Commentary: Wokeness Has the Potential to Destroy the Military from Within

Wokeness might do to the American military what no foreign enemy ever could: Fracture the world’s greatest armed forces from within, through divisive political indoctrination and controls.

Wokeness—extreme ideological intolerance of opposing views and the imposition of life-destroying punishments for the insufficiently woke—is organized fratricide. 

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Commentary: America’s Defense Establishment Appears Too Big to Succeed

by Brandon J. Weichert   The United States has a problem: It has a military-industrial complex built on assumptions about international security dating from the last century. Despite maintaining a larger defense budget than the next 10 countries behind it, the United States has been painfully slow to respond to…

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