this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
604 points (97.8% liked)

politics

19239 readers
2465 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Army Gen. Mark Milley pushed back on claims from Republicans that the military is “woke” and as a result not prepared to take on modern threats, saying he’s “not even sure what that word truly means.”

“What I see is a military that’s exceptionally strong. It’s powerful; it’s ready. In fact, our readiness rates, the way we measure readiness, is better now than they’ve been in years,” Milley said in a CNN interview Sunday.

Republican politicians and candidates have blasted the Pentagon for so-called woke policies, pointing to efforts to recruit a diverse group of military service members and be inclusive to transgender soldiers.

Those claims have also headlined efforts to reduce military spending.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Recruitment is low, but a large reason for that is their standards are kind of high relative to our youth. Less than 1 in 4 aged 17-24 are expected to be able to qualify.

Visible tattoos? Sorry. ADHD medication in the past six months? Need a waiver. Test positive for weed? Sorry. Not many can even pass the fitness tests anymore.

That being said, recruitment isn't the only measure for a strong military. You could very well be correct in your conclusion, but I wouldn't base it solely on that.

[–] BrudderAaron 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would think the lack of general care for soldiers after the fact is a big driving point of people just not wanting to even attempt it. Why put yourself through that rigorous experience if in 30 years you're disabled and fighting with your own government to help with living costs?

I don't delve too much into Military things so I can't even say for certain if I'm on track with this. This is purely from an outsider's perspective.

[–] neanderthal 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

To get the hell outta dodge. It is the best way for a young American with few ties to get a fresh start in life.

You start getting paid the second you leave, you get health, dental, housing, food, gym membership, discounts, job training, and education paid for. If you lock into your contract a specific job, it takes longer to ship out, but you won't get stuck doing IT if you want to work on tanks or planes or whatever.

I'm not delusional, there is a very real chance you will see combat of some sort. Even POGs (basically non combat jobs) that are deployed to bases in active conflicts will get the joy of being on the bad end IDFs (indirect fire attack, basically mortars, rockets, artillery, etc).

Source: Been there down that.

[–] Weirdfish 8 points 1 year ago

One day I realised I was out of options. The military had always been a theoretical get out of Dodge card for me, and since I was out of ideas, no place to live, and it was the middle of winter, I signed up.

My MOS placement was possibly the single best luck of the draw I've ever had in my life, and having a guaranteed contract saved my ass a few times in tech school.

Even though my military career wasn't the best, and ended early, the training both personal and technical still serves me well to this day.

I literally can not imagine what my life would be like if I hadn't joined.

[–] BrudderAaron 3 points 1 year ago

Thank you for the information!