Philip Reichert

The ongoing military recruiting crisis has dominated headlines, with the Army, Air Force, and Navy all falling short of their goals last year. Concerns over readiness and talent attraction are widespread, even being a core focus of this year’s Heritage Foundation index of military strength. However, attributing the recruiting crisis to “woke culture” or inadequate benefits misses a more intuitive root cause: Without a just war to ignite our patriotism, Americans are not in a rush to enlist. But recruiting soldiers isn’t the real issue; it’s the readiness of our military infrastructure that should alarm us.