EP 305 Why is the U.S. Military Having Trouble Recruiting?

 The military has a recruitment problem that it doesn’t want to talk about.  It’s an open secret that may be one of the nation’s great defense vulnerabilities going forward.  Yet those who attribute it to long deployments, pay issues, methods of marketing to young people may all mask an even greater problem in society which will require longer term solutions that go well beyond the military to the very essence of our society.  That is Mark Perry’s assessment. I won’t share his take. You should hear it from him. He is the author of ‘The Pentagon’s Wars: The Military’s Undeclared War Against America’s Presidents’.  We did a previous podcast with him focused on the book but wanted his unique, and troubling, perspective on this issue.  And while that’s a good portion of this episode, we go on to discuss rising defense threats to America around the globe and whether our responses are adequate.  We further explore the status of our international alliances and what the military’s role might be if our political order becomes even more polarized in the period ahead.  It is really a freewheeling conversation from which you will glean important information about our defense posture today.

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