Growing Number Of Americans Say They Would Not Go To War For U.S.

If America was invaded or found itself attacked many people wonder if there would be any Americans who would be willing to fight for their country.

After the attack on Israel by Hamas, many young people in the United States began sharing propaganda from Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and agreeing with what he said on TikTok.

An increasing number of young people have also expressed anti-American sentiment and have protested against their own nation on college campuses, leading others to ask: ‘Would you at least fight for your own country?’

Sadly, according to a new report, most wouldn’t.

“A new poll done by the research institute Echelon Insights found that a stunning 72 percent of Americans say they would not volunteer to defend the United States if it were in a war,” Newsweek reported.

“The figures come as all branches of the armed forces have in recent years struggled to meet their recruitment targets, suggesting a growing apathy towards a career of military service,” it said.

In another stunning poll, 30 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds would prefer to surrender than to die for their nation.

It is not tough to discern why this would be the case as this generation of young people has been inundated with anti-American propaganda on college campuses.

It is also a generation that has been coddled, been given safe spaces to hide and been told that mean words are the same as being assaulted.

“We have strike groups, aircraft carriers with a Marine Expeditionary Unit outside Israel now,” Justin Henderson, a military recruiter, said to Newsweek. “We’re funding two wars, but we’re actually boots on the ground, drones above Gaza. So we’re already involved in there—and we’re not sure what’s happening in Taiwan. So this is a very tumultuous time for us, because we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The issues in recruiting could be detrimental to the United States if it found itself in a war, Tom Shugart, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a former Navy attack submarine commander, said to Newsweek.

“How much it matters depends on what kind of people you’re talking about and which bit you’re not getting,” he said.

“Let’s say the Navy misses recruiting targets for an extended period and wasn’t able to bring on the people that it needs to manage submarines and fly its airplanes…if you end up in a major conflict, it’s going to take time to train those people,” he said.

However, some say that those numbers are not accurate because attitudes change if there is a war.

“I’m very skeptical of that being accurate because I think the ‘why’ you’re in a war can dramatically change the answer to that question,” Shugart said. “I was in the military before 9/11; a lot of society didn’t really think about the military very much [before then].”

“If you look at our history, we need to be convinced to get into [a] war,” Military Recruiting Experts CEO David Eustice said to Newsweek.

“If we are convinced that it’s something that we need to do, Americans generally will do it; less people joining is another matter, and it’s very complex,” he said.

Newsweek added:

Having observed his young children watching videos on the internet of feats of physical activity, Henderson said they were “getting that dopamine hit” of seeing someone accomplish something physically taxing, “but their body didn’t go through it. And that’s where the disconnect really comes in.”

The current generation is also less likely to interact with members of the military, the recruiters said. Eustice noted that while his father, who served in Korea, saw seven of his 10 children serve in the military, that sort of family was very uncommon nowadays.

Henderson, now a senior vice president at RecruitMilitary, said that modern technology had generally reduced face-to-face interactions, which were the standard means for military recruiters to engage young people.

“Those opportunities to have those conversations aren’t as abundant as they used to be,” he told the outlet.