LETTER: Trouble is brewing, and U.S. military is not prepared for it

To Ozaukee Press:

Trouble is brewing all over the world. Putin has said he will use nuclear weapons if Ukraine is allowed by the U.S. to use long-range missiles in its war against Russia. A Houthi missile was shot into central Jerusalem. Pagers in Lebanon are exploding. The Wall Street Journal reported that Germany, our strongest ally in Europe, will require 100 years to rebuild its military to 1991 strength. The U.S. Navy has mothballed seven cruisers because it doesn’t have the resources to maintain them or the sailors to operate them. Is our military prepared? The short answer is no.

A recent bipartisan congressional report, “Commission on the National Defense Strategy,” said: “The United States could in short order be drawn into a war across multiple theaters with peer and near-peer adversaries, and it could lose.”

Many problems exist:

The largest recruiting crisis in over half a century occurred last year when our military recruitment was short by 41,000 personnel.

Forty-four percent of women failed the Army combat fitness test. As a result, the Army reduced the standards for the test to accommodate more women and older soldiers.

Defense Department data show that 70% of active-duty service members are overweight and that obesity rates have doubled in the last 10 years.

In 2018, 70% of Americans said they would recommend joining the military

to family or friends. By 2023, that number had plummeted to 51%.

The National Independent Panel on Military Service and Readiness concluded that “the human elements of training, discipline, cohesion, confidence and morale critical to fighting and winning wars are under severe duress due to a prioritization of a political agenda that distracts from the war fighting mission and diminishes trust in military leadership.”

Ozaukee and Washington county citizens can take action to help rectify these shortcomings by going to STARRS, a bipartisan organization formed in 2007 by retired military and concerned citizens. Its focus is to maximize military readiness and team building by focusing on war fighting while enforcing high standards.

I am the state of Wisconsin lead volunteer for STARRS, and I encourage citizens to get involved.

Phil Bail

Cedarburg

The letter writer is a retired lieutenant colonel who served in the U.S. Air Force