OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Joe Biden’s Defense Department will be spending taxpayer dollars to add solar panels to the Pentagon while most of the service branches continue to suffer big declines in recruitment.
“The Pentagon is one of 31 government sites that are receiving $104 million in Energy Department grants that are expected to double the amount of carbon-free electricity at federal facilities and create 27 megawatts of clean-energy capacity while leveraging more than $361 million in private investment, the Energy Department,” The Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
“The grant program also includes energy upgrades at Naval bases in Georgia and Washington state, as well as the Naval Support Activity Mid-South in Tennessee,” the newswire added.
The Pentagon is set to undergo multiple improvements, including the installation of solar panels, as part of its efforts to decrease reliance on natural gas and fuel oil combustion systems. Additionally, a heat pump system and solar thermal panels will be implemented in this endeavor, the AP noted.
Meanwhile, as the Biden administration spends hundreds of millions on ‘greening’ the Pentagon, military branches have consistently failed to attract enough recruits to fill the ranks over the past three years, with a surprising number of young Americans saying they would not go to war to defend the country.
Following the October 7 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, told 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, told the outlet.
“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.
“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.
