When it comes to military recruitment, President Biden left President Trump a flaming bag of you-know-what on the White House steps. Mr. Biden sapped the ranks of America’s military when he discharged more than 8,000 members for noncompliance with his Covid-19 vaccine mandate. These dismissals compounded the morale catastrophe of the Pentagon’s diversity, equity and inclusion push, best understood as a pseudoscientific attempt to favor loyalists at the expense of merit-based promotions and military readiness.
The Navy and Air Force missed their recruitment targets in fiscal 2023 for the first time this century. The Army missed its enlistment goals in 2022 and 2023, and the Marine Corps barely met its target in 2024. The most advanced weapons systems are useless without talented, motivated soldiers to operate them. Any military recruitment crisis emboldens America’s enemies. Resolving the Biden-created recruiting crisis is as important as securing our borders.