Newsweek magazine published a recent opinion poll that showed that a majority of American adults would not be willing to serve in the army if the United States entered into a major war, while public confidence in the armed forces appears to be declining.

The magazine pointed out that these numbers come at a time when all branches of the armed forces have struggled in recent years to achieve their recruitment goals, indicating a growing apathy towards military service.

She pointed out that the opinion poll - conducted by the research institute Echelon Insights on 1,029 potential voters in the period from 23 to 26 October last year, after Hamas led its unprecedented armed attack on Israel on the 7th of the same month - showed that 72% of respondents would not They would be willing to volunteer to serve in the armed forces if America entered into a major conflict, compared to 21% who were willing to volunteer, and the remainder were unsure.

The magazine also referred to another poll conducted by Gallup last June, which showed that confidence in the army declined for the sixth year in a row to 60%.

She added that in 2023, the army and air force failed to achieve their goals by recruiting about 10,000, while the number of conscripts in the navy was less than 6,000, and since 1987 the number of active personnel has decreased by 39%.

It quoted experts in the field that such a shortage is worrying in light of an increasingly volatile global picture, as the American leadership does not know when it will next have to use its full military power.

Experts add that there is a complex mix of factors contributing to the issue of military recruitment, including adapting the issue to a younger target generation who is more engaged with modern technology, as well as an economic outlook that is proving to be a challenging environment for recruiting efforts.

It quoted the CEO of Military Recruitment Experts, David Eustice, as saying that there were other factors in the recruitment process itself that had an impact on the number of recruits arriving at the training camp, including daily limits on the number that could be recruited, in addition to increased medical examinations and knowledge of the criminal record of the applicant for recruitment.

Newsweek concluded its report that the military also faces a high level of unfitness for service among the general population, and as of 2020 estimates indicated that 77% of those between the ages of 17 and 24 were unfit for medical reasons, drug use, or criminal records.

From Aljazeera Net