According to a report from the Department of Defense that was released earlier in March, the overwhelming majority of Americans ages 17-24 are not fit to serve in the military.
Alluding to a February 16 congressional hearing, the Defense Department report highlighted how 77% of Americans in the aforementioned age group don’t have the physical qualifications to enter the armed forces. This represents a 6% increase from 2017.
One of the factors that explains the alarming levels of young Americans being unfit to serve in the military is obesity. Tyler Durden of ZeroHedge noted that obesity reached roughly 42% in 2020.
Back in September 2022, a US Army General did not mince words when he said that young Americans have several characteristics that make them unable to serve in the military.
“Some of the challenges we have are obesity, we have pre-existing medical conditions, we have behavioral health problems, we have criminality, people with felonies, and we have drug use,” Lieutenant General Xavier Brunson told The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Washington.
Brunson described it as a “condition,” saying that “this is not an Army problem, so nationally what we have to look at is what’s going on with our youth.”
The general’s statement came in response to the problems the US military has had in reaching its recruitment goals for recruits in 2022. All branches of the US military — the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy — have faced this recruitment problem. In light of this problem, some US policymakers have deemed obesity a threat to national security.
“Each year, more than $60 million goes toward replacing the 1,200-plus first-term enlistees discharged for excess weight,” Irina Tsukerman said to The Epoch Times.
She added that high obesity rates have slashed the recruiting pool significantly, in addition to “falling intelligence and education standards.” She believes that these factors on top of reduced resiliency and flexibility, has made the military less prepared to confront “asymmetrical or conventional challenges.”
In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also labeled America’s obesity problems as a security threat. According to the CDC’s figures, roughly 20% of children and 40% US adults are now obese.
CDC statistics also point to 19% of active-duty service members suffering from obesity in 2020, which represents a 16% increase in 2015.
In response to the growing obesity challenge, the US military is tweaking its fitness requirements for several jobs, especially positions that don’t require applicants to have strong physical chops, for example, technology positions.
Tsukerman warned that lowering physical barriers within the US military could still establish frightening precedents.
“While it is true that technical developments such as the use of UAV [unmanned aerial vehicles] and AI [artificial intelligence] have displaced some human participation in the field, much of the combat still relies on conventional human performance,” she stated. “Therefore, national security directly depends on human forces being astute, situationally aware, and agile.”
Indeed, if the US lowers its recruitment standards in the military, it will be fielding weaker military units that are incapable of defending the homeland, especially during a time when there’s a massive Zerg Rush taking place at the border.
America’s obesity crisis points to a broader trend of social decadence, where its permissive society no longer stresses discipline and encourages people to engage in self-destructive activities much to their physical and mental detriment. On top of that, the federal government, through subsidies and its nutritional guidelines, makes sure that people go down the inevitable path of obesity.
The US needs to hit the reset button on all fronts — from lifestyle to politics — if it wants to maintain any form of civilizational coherence.