Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / What Has Gone Wrong With U.S. Military Recruiting And Why?

Transcript

What Has Gone Wrong With U.S. Military Recruiting And Why? · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Welcome morning friends. Welcome to the third hour of the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Morning Show with Thrustin Scanose's running the radio program in
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Studio one A, and I am here as always in
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Studio one B, and it is Show five two hundred
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and eighteen. You know, we came across some stories and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: we've been following for quite a while now, the challenges
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: facing the armed services of this country and the recruiting
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: numbers and the challenges the vulnerabilities that that poses to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: us as a nation. And I turned to where I
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: go when I need an expert to give us some
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: insight and better understanding, and that's the Heritage Foundation. And
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Karin Williams was kind enough to go up the ladder
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: quite a bit here with this one. Our guest, James Carafana,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: is a twenty five year Army vet. He's got his
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: master's and doctorate from Georgetown. He is an expert in
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: national security and foreign policy and serves as Senior counsel
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Counselor to the President of Heritage Foundation and is the E. W.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Richardson Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. James, it's a long
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: and distinguished resume. Thank you so much for honoring us
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: with your presence today, How are you, sir so Europe.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: For your third hour? Did you get like two o'clock
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: in the morning. How at work?
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm up early, no doubt about it, go to
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: bed early, up early. But James, thank you for serving
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: our country first and foremost, and thank you for making
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: time for us. I want to ask, as you started
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: to watch the numbers decline in the recruiting, at what
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: point did it start to concern you? Or are we not?
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Are we worried for nothing?
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Well, this is kind of a good news bad news thing.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: And when I get to the punchline about why this
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: is important, it's not what people think. So the good
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: news is, you know, the the services are doing a
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: better job getting to their numbers. We saw a significant
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: decline in propensity to serve, particularly because of the woke
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: and everything else, and and and most people don't know that,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: like somewhere between seventy percent of American youth are not
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: actually qualified to serve in the military because of the
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: physical standards, They've got health issues, they've got a criminal record,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: they have completed high school something I thought, So you
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: think the vast majority can't even serve, right, So, so
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: isn't this great because we're actually getting close to making
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: our numbers now? Well, no, because one is under Biden.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: The size of the military continues to decline. And you know,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: we do this thing every year called the Index of
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: US Military Strengths and the Harry's Foundation. We've done it
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: for over a decade and we can consistently see in
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: the last four years declining in military reading. It's part
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: of that is just because the numbers are smaller, so
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: their goal isn't it's high. The other thing is that
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: they started to do something which sound smart but actually
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: it's a it's a red flag, and that is they
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: started kind of pre enlistment training. So they're actually bringing
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: kids in months early, putting them through PTS so they
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: could get up to the physical standards, actually educating them
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: enough so they could be equivalent of a high school
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: graduate and and so that's how they're they're rounding out
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: the numbers. The problem with that is that's not a
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: sustainable model. The Brits have been doing this for years
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: because they were literally running out of people, so they
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: were taking unqualified people and they're investing in them to
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: get them to be qualified. That's expensive. First, of all,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: it's not scalable, like you can't really do that on
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: a mass scale. And if we ever had needed numbers
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: in the military, legitimate numbers and a three and a
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: half million or so, we couldn't sustain that. So this
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: is not going to work long term. And we have
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: two problems. One is our military is too small. The
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: other thing is if we're going to have kids who
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: both have the propensity and capability to serve that is
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: not a military problem. That is a that is a
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: whole of us problem. We're not educating our children. We're
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: not we're not making sure our children are physically and
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: mentally fit. And that is not a problem for the
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: military to solved. That is a problem for us to
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: solve our education system as crap are the nutrition and
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: the physical of our children. It's not about money, it's
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: not about poverty right now. How it's literally about not
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: having families. Because the lack of a family means you're
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: never going to do any of these things. Well, you're
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: never going to produce healthy, responsible kids. That's the real
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: root of this problem.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Use weather, traffic and the big stories in the press box,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the fastest three hours in media, and don't be surprised
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: if you have a chuckle here and there. Just like that.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: It's The Morning Show with Preston Scott. Eleven minutes after
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: the hour, James Carafano with us from the Heritage Foundation.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: We're talking about military recruiting. This has been an issue.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: I've gotten a lot of email about how do we
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: turn this around? James, what would your response be. I mean,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: let's say you and I have kids that are you know,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: they're they're from an from an intelligence standpoint, They've got
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: their their high school out of the way, they're maybe
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: taking some college, they're physically fit. But would you want
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: them to serve under the leadership that is leading our
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: nation's military right now?
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Well, uh, look, you know I would. Look. I think
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: I was in the military, Jimmy Carter is when I
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: first came in, and it was probably it wouldn't in
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: badness now. But I still think military service is a
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: great opportunity and a great thing for kids. And there's
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: a lot of sergeants and captains and young leaders out
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: there who want to take care of these kids and
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: serve them well. So I think the politics will turn around.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: I still think the military is great. I'll tell you
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: what the problem is not and the solution is not
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: a draft. You probably saw this thing where there's a
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: bill they want to draft women, which has nothing to
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: do with military readiness at all. First of all, women
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: have plenty of opportunity to serve in the military, so
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: it's not like it's an equal opportunity thing. The second
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: thing is is the draft is completely useless. If eighty
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: percent of the of the draft pool is ineligible to serve,
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: you're drafting the people who are volunteering. So it's it's nonsensical.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: We don't have training ground, we don't have equipment to
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: outfit a draft military. So the draft is really an anachronism.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: It's something you would be if if we needed to
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: put twenty million people under arms, which I hope our
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: foreign policy never gets kind of that screwed up. So
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: it's about it's about woke politics and about erasing the
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: difference between men and women. It's not a serious thing.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: And see to see Congress kind of messing around with it,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: and then people always say, well, we should draft everybody, right, Well,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: the problem with that is, you know, again most people
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: aren't eligible for the draft too. You're only in the
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: military for two years. So by the time you get trained,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: you're gone. It's very, very expensive. It's not efficient at all.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: And people say, well they'll learn discipline. Well look right
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: now they're learning to go to drag shows. The military
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: is not. You can build character in the military, but
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: you have to be a person of character when you
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: go in. I mean, I learned my character before I
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: went to West Point. And again it goes back to families.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: So if you ask me, what what What's the first
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: thing I would two if I wanted to have a
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: stronger military is I would start to work on the
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: things that build healthy, strong families in America.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: But and I don't disagree with one thing you're saying, James,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: But if the people at the very top that are
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: making ultimately the decisions on deployments and so forth, I
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: always have felt high regard for those in in you know,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: the basic levels of military leadership, but higher command, the
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: people that are ordering all of this wake ideology down
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: the chain. I feel as though until that changes, I'm
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: not sure I'm sacrificing or recommending my child sacrifice himself.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: At that point, Well I would I'd take two thing.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: One as uh, you know, the nation still has to
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: be defended. Uh, here's where I agree with you. I
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: think we should find there's virtually I can I can
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: think of maybe one or two I would fire. Most
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: of the generals agree. These are all people that got
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: promoted initially under Obama, and they were all designed to
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: give us a political military leadership, not in leadership dedicated
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: to military service. So they're all corrupted. Most of them
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: should go. The political leaders should go. The political leadership
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: of the Pentagon should completely go. But this is a
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: fixable problem. We had a terrible military inn or Jimmy Carter,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: we fixed it. But they all should be gone. That's
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: the thing. But here's the thing. You're absolutely right. People.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: The number one reason people enlist, and more importantly re
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: enlist and stay in the military, the number one reason
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: is they feel like they're doing something useful. It's not
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: pay it's not the GI bill, it's not promotions, it's
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: not pay raises. It is and I feel like I
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: am contributing to something positive and constructive. And so you're right.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: When you throw kids in Afghanistan and then you tell
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: all this is it's just a big mistake. We're relieving
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: and then thirteen die and you say, oh, it's a
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: perfect operation that does not instill trusting competence in the
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: rank and files. The military.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Final a few minutes with James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: James is a national security expert. So let's zero in
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: on that. I've long wondered, you know why China Russia
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: doesn't just go for it? Because I feel like we
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: are that compromise with our military, our numbers and so
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: forth right now. Plus you know, we got a bunch
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: of guys more concerned with you know, personal pronouns than
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: military tactics. James, is the Second Amendment one of those
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: things that kind of keeps us safe.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Look, I thought the thing that China, Russia and Ran
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: all that in common is they want to roll without America.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: But they also want to win a war without fighting.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: And it doesn't mean they're not averse to fighting war.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: They don't really want to fight a war directly with US,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: and nobody wants to come and invade the United States.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: So and part of it is second of them, right,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: America as a country is a super hard target, which
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: is things why open border is so unbelievably stupid, Because
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: we were creating our own vulnerability that didn't exist until
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: we created it. They want to beat us by having
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: us withdraw in the world, weaken ourselves, not be seen
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: as a good ally. That's why declining military writing thiss
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: is so freaking dangerous because it could accidentally lead towards
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: and it couldn't intentionally do wards that they escalate, like
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: the invasion of Ukraine. So if people are seriously interested
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: in this, what I recommend is we have this on
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: our website. It's called the US Index of Military Strengths.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: They just have to go on a search engine. You
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: can find it in two seconds. It is the only
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: it is the only objective assessment of the US military
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: in the world. The Pentagon doesn't even do this. It's
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: the same measure every year in and out, whether it's
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: a Republican, an officer, Democrat in office, and it looks
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: at the US, it looks at its enemies, looks where
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: we have to fight. It is a It's like hundred
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: pages and thousands of the notes. It's unbelievable, and you
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: can find that info. But here's the root it all
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: leads to, because it does go back to who is
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: the president of United States? And not until few people
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: who vote for him, not Republican A Democrats doesn't marry me.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: I'm a dog in the fight. But look, people say, well,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: I'm voting on taxes, I'm voting on the orange chair,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: I'm voting on the Hyeno ass right, And the reality
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: is that it doesn't matter what you think you're voting for.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: You are voting for the commander in chief of the
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: United States, whether you want to believe that or not,
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: whether you care or not, you are and the kind
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: of military you're going to get is dependent upon the
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: person that you elect. And I know because I've seen
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: this for decades. I came in the army under Jimmy Carter,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: I saw the army under Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, the
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Bush's Arack Afghanistan. I've seen all these things and it
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: all traces back to the person you put in the
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Oval office. So if you don't like the military you have,
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: you just have to say, how, why did that election
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: turn out the way it is?
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Could it be argued that is the single most important
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: thing that we're voting on.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Always it always is. And you know, we ended the
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Cold War and we thought, you know, we're never going
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: to have to think but if actually, if you take Iran, China,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: and Russia together and look at their total military and
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: economic power, that is actually a more significant threat than
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: dealing with the Soviet Union at the height of the
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Cold War, and they have more nuclear weapons than the
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: Soviet Union did of Co War.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: If I were to if I were to ask you, James,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: to grade us right now, just taking that military strength
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: index that you have and I'm looking at right now
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and boil it down for us, distill it. If you
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: were to grade us A through F, what grade would
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: you give us right now in our readiness to act
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: on more than one front?
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Most well, we're an F at being able to act
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: on more than one front.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Were a D.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Basically overall, the number one issue we have right now
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: is we need a much bigger maritime force in the
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Pacific to deter the Chinese. And people can't say, just
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: pivot to the Pacific because seventy percent of the US
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Navy's already in the Pacific. If we move the rest
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: of it there won't be able to do anything. So
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: we need to build a navy that's worthy of the
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: United States. That's our number one mission number two, which
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: in ten years will be even more important, and nobody
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: gets this matter. Nobody gets the fact that Paris actually
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: is the chief space officer in the United States, head
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: of the UK Space Council. We just stranded two astronauts
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: in space for a year. In ten years, who dominates
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: in space is who's going to win wars on our period?
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Drop mic end of statements.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the high ground.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: It is. It is not just the high ground, it
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: is controlling the universe. I'm my friend, I mean this
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: is going to mean everything. So after we build the
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: world's strongest made we have about fifteen years to catch
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: up and beat the Chinese in space. Otherwise we're all
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: going to be working for them.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I think that pretty well sums it up. Chicks, Thank
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: you for the time this morning.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: Man.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I appreciate the visit and I hope we can get
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: you back on here sometime soon. That'd be great, Thank you, sir.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: All right, James Carafinal with us and he's with the
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Heritage Foundation. What do you think is that pretty much
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: sum it up? You better build up the navy. Weren't
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: we just talking about shipbuilding last week? How China is
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: just just destroying us in building ships, subs destroyers and
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: now he's talking space. We had a fifteen year window.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Twenty seven past the hour, It's The Morning Show with
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Preston Scott