America's Unfit Military Recruits
Seventy Seven Percent of Eligible Recruits are Unfit for Military Service. This is not news, and a solution has been evident - including to the military - for at least a decade.
Pennsylvania Republicans should be kicking themselves. Instead of having strong and effective representation in the US Senate, which they’ve had in the recent past with Rick Santorum and Pat Toomey, they have allowed the Commonwealth - and the nation - to be cursed with one of our nation’s weakest and most ineffective delegations.
Pennsylvania’s senior senator is an empty suit. The unaccomplished 16-year Senator Bob Casey Jr., elected only on his father's legacy that he’s never lived up to and now disgraces with an 80 percent approval score from Planned Parenthood, and no-show newly elected Senator John Fetterman, a stroke victim suffering from severe depression. His only known concrete agenda item is marijuana legalization, which he could not accomplish during his four years as Lieutenant Governor. And not being Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Given his obvious health challenges, any compassionate person should conclude that Fetterman has no business being in the US Senate. He needs to be home, recuperating, with good medical care and the support of a loving wife and family. No, they, including his wife, used, abused, and enabled the ill Fetterman with the aid and comfort of Democratic party elders to prop him up and project him to victory. Pennsylvania’s practically worthless media outlets proved to be fellow enablers. This is what happens when you value power over life itself. It’s a sickness.
Fetterman was abetted by the “wisdom” of a Republican party that stupidly nominated a New Jersey transplant, celebrity TV host, and dual Turkish citizen with an unrelatable name unless you’re Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion, never mind Toto.
Anyone familiar with Pennsylvania politics (I lived in the state for nearly 20 years and worked in campaigns there since 1984) knows Dr. Mehmet Oz would unlikely prove palatable to enough Pennsylvanians to win in the highly concentric and deeply provincial state. And he didn’t. It wasn’t close. He lost to a stroke victim who couldn’t even debate or campaign. Fetterman couldn’t even talk in complete sentences. Even Joe Biden can at least do that some of the time.
We have Donald Trump to thank for that, but only in part. Trump’s endorsement of Oz in the primary over Pennsylvania native and former Bush Administration official David McCormick helped prompt mindless GOP primary voters to choose the flawed cardiologist best known for quack advice from his afternoon television show, which apparently Melania Trump watched and loved. Deus adiuva nos*.
McCormick still just narrowly lost the nomination after a lengthy recount process. But credit the former hedge fund manager and Army paratrooper for graciously conceding and doing all he could to help elected Oz. Even he could not rescue that steaming disaster.
McCormick is seriously considering a run against Casey in 2024, but he has to win the GOP nomination first; no guarantee. If he runs as expected and wins the nomination, it will be one of the most competitive races in the country, no matter who leads the national ticket. The author of a new book is a serious person and the type of candidate Pennsylvanians used to elect. I miss that Pennsylvania.
Unless Pennsylvania Republicans blow it again by nominating failed 2022 GOP gubernatorial nominee and St. Sen. Doug Mastriano, who ran the worst statewide campaign in modern American history in a horrific loss to now-Governor Josh Shapiro, a shrewd pro-abortion, big-government lefty masquerading as moderate.
Mastriano, who is also embarrassingly considering a run after his failed 2022 campaign, is a patriot who has served his nation in combat and is a devoted family man of deep faith. That does not excuse him for being a stupid candidate who never grasped that campaigns are about addition, not subtraction.
Mastriano should wise up, check his ample ego, and decline. He cannot win a statewide race in Pennsylvania. He should be happy with his deep red State Senate seat near Gettysburg. Maybe a seat in the US House someday.
Somebody talk sense to him, please.
Speaking of talking sense, McCormick co-authored a blockbuster op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this week, lamenting America’s “cultural rot” with a focus on three of four young Americans being physically unqualified for military service. From the op-ed:
America’s cultural cancer manifests itself in many ways, but no symptom is more telling than our low military recruitment. Last year the Army hit only 75% of its recruiting target, while other services had to scramble to meet theirs. This year looks to be worse. The all-volunteer force, formed 50 years ago, is in peril and threatens our ability to defend ourselves in a dangerous world. What does this say about America?
It says we have a national health crisis. A volunteer military requires able-bodied recruits, but 77% of young Americans would be unfit to serve for health reasons. Behind that statistic lies a mountain of concerning data. Every year, fentanyl and other drugs take more than 106,000 lives and affect millions more, reducing the pool of recruits.
The op-ed moves on to discuss other issues with the military. But while McCormick may think that the American military recruitment crisis is news, the fact is that it’s been around for about twenty years, especially when considering fitness.
How do I know this? Let me introduce you to the American Council on Fitness and Nutrition (ACFN), PE4Life, the American Dietetic Association, and three inner city schools in Kansas City, Missouri, under the guise of a “Healthy Schools Partnership.”
Ably led by Dr. Susan Finn and nutritionist Alison Kretser, ACFN developed a formula to introduce physical education into these schools and tie it to nutrition information, connecting “calories in” and “calories out.”
In fairness, obesity is not that simple. For many, it is not just a “calories in, calories out” equation. It is a chronic disease resulting not necessarily from bad choices but often from genetic disposition and other environmental factors.
Take, for example, America’s outdated farm programs that favor “program crops” like corn and soy over “minor” crops like fruit and vegetables. Another environmental factor is eliminating “recess” for “screen” time when kids played outside in years past. At so many inner-city schools, it is unsafe, with asphalt playgrounds and other hazards around them. Other demands on schools for computer skills have erased lunch times and practically eliminated physical activity and nutrition education other than for skilled athletes.
Finn’s and Kretsor’s work produced remarkable results in Kansas City. So much so the military noticed and sent a team out to learn about their work.
That was more than a decade ago.
Exercise equipment was provided to the schools, which dedicated a room and several minutes each day for the kids to be coached by nutritionists on how to count calories being burned in various activities, whether on a treadmill or a bike. They were also taught how many calories needed to be burned after consuming something like a banana or a cup of ice cream. It incentivized kids to eat healthier without ostracising an occasional treat.
I no longer possess the high school principal's letter but I remember his sentiments. He was amazed at the results. Not only were kids’ BMI (Body Mass Index) scores dropping, but grades improved, and truancy declined. This was a food industry-funded effort to promote physical education and nutrition education as the key to improving child health. And it was successful, as far as it went.
What happened to the program was tragic.
First, the city closed the schools over declining enrollment—all three.
Second, a politically-connected and ambitious self-promoter took it upon herself to undermine the program and its leaders, schmooze her way into food company CEO offices, and steer support and dollars to herself and a glitzy “Discovery Education” program that taught nutrition but provided no physical activity for a much lower level of industry investment. Still, lots of nice talking points with phony metrics that meant nothing, never measuring what mattered - changing children’s health. Even my own CEO fell for this claptrap. It rankles me to this day.
The results speak for themselves. Kids today are fatter and less healthy than ever. Just ask the military.
The food industry blew that one.
Finn and Kretsor’s program was expensive, to be sure. Getting exercise equipment in schools is not cheap, and making classrooms available for it is a challenge. Getting nutrition experts to coach kids is also not inexpensive. But throwing up catchy videos and measuring the number of kids watching was cheap and easy. And ineffective.
But the bottom line is this. The military knew this was a problem during the Bush Administration. They found a program that worked. And everyone dropped the ball.
Meanwhile, America’s cultural rot and decline continue as our military struggles to find physically qualified young adults. My Army lieutenant son tells me that the National Guard has difficulty recruiting soldiers and keeping them, given a constant drumbeat of disruptive year-long overseas deployments. They are lowering standards instead. How will that work out after China, after consuming Taiwan, decides Guam would be a nice outpost?
I have said for years that there is no easy or quick answer or solution to our growing obesity crisis or our military recruitment challenges. Nutrition education and physical activity must become top priorities in our schools, starting at age five and continuing every year through high school and college. Perhaps the growing movement of homeschooling, and neighborhood schooling, can lead the way. Public schooling has clearly failed in so many ways. It is long past time to reinvent education in America.
Increasing numbers of Americans who struggle with their weight (hand raised) are now turning to expensive drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic. They’re for diabetics, but some, like Elon Musk, use the drug to keep the weight off. But once you start down the path of weekly injections, you likely won’t be able to stop. And you’d better have an ample bank account because insurance companies aren’t covering it for off-label purposes. Yet.
The hour is getting late, and the leadership remains lacking, even non-existent. While the food industry totally dropped the ball here, and few seem to care, perhaps other health-related organizations can pick up the baton and fill the vacuum. Maybe Bill Gates could steer his ample resources to this instead of worthless or harmful vaccines or buying up farmland.
Perhaps Pennsylvanians can atone for their electoral sins and send David McCormick to the US Senate since no one else in Congress is leading the charge. That would be a nice start.
* translation from Latin: God help us
No artificial intelligence was used to write this.