The United States military is in crisis. A senior Defense Department official said, “I’ve been studying the recruiting market for about 15 years, and we’ve never seen a condition quite like this,” starrs reported on June 30.

According to a July 18 Wall Street Journal analysis by Ben Kesling, the U.S. military will fall drastically short of its enlisting goals—15,000 short in the Army, 10,000 short in the Navy and 3,000 short in the Air Force. The Marine Corps should meet its boot camp goal this year, but its leaders have found recruitment much more challenging of late.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, “[E]very single metric tracking the military recruiting environment is going in the wrong direction.”

According to a January 24 Mission: Readiness report, 77 percent of young Americans are not fit for military service due to a lack of physical fitness, insufficient mental health, low test scores, criminal records, alcohol and drug abuse, etc. Most are disqualified for multiple reasons. In addition, a study conducted last month by the American Security Project found that nearly 70 percent of U.S. troops are overweight or obese.

Shutdowns during the covid era greatly contributed to this enlistment crisis.

Katherine Kuzminski, head of the Military, Veterans and Society Program, said, “You can’t underestimate the fact that we didn’t have recruiters on college and high school campuses for two years [during covid].”

Gen. David Berger said the military’s covid vaccine mandate, which was lifted on January 10, also pushed away potential recruits and decreased overall numbers.

But there is a much larger cause at play.

Underlying Cause

The biggest factor in this crisis is that young people no longer want to fight for their country.

The Wall Street Journal reported that last year, only 9 percent of Americans ages 16 to 21 said they were considering military service—a drop of 4 percentage points from before covid-19. Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the preoccupation with social media plays a role in the decline. “Influencers are not telling them [young people] to go into the military,” he said.

Today’s youth are taught to hate their country and that bettering themselves is unnecessary. They believe society must accept them as they are. They aren’t even interested in gaining the physical ability needed to fight.

This all goes back to the left’s woke message.

Woke theory goes against every successful military strategy. For instance, it teaches that authority is oppressive. Without government, a military will quickly fall. Someone who thinks all authority is oppressive will not pursue a military career.

In addition, the theory pummels masculinity. A nation’s success greatly depends on whether it can inspire its young men to fight for it. Woke theory preaches against supposed “toxic masculinity”—the very masculinity needed to win wars. This does not stir young men to risk their lives for a country they’ve been taught to hate.

Concerning the older generation, woke theory teaches that “fathers aren’t essential to the well-being of children” (from “Deconstructing the Essential Father” by C.F. Auerbach and L.B. Silverstein). This belief is also affecting the U.S. Military.

In Jerrod Brown’s “Father-Absent Homes: Implications for Criminal Justice and Mental Health Professionals,” the Minnesota Psychological Association said children who grow up without fathers are more likely to face perceived abandonment, attachment issues, child abuse, childhood obesity, criminal justice involvement, gang involvement, mental health issues, poor school performance, poverty, homelessness and substance use. Six of those factors are common reasons why so many young people are unfit for military service. The others could certainly deter one from a military career.

Prophesied Troubles

Starting in the 1930s, Herbert W. Armstrong predicted in detail the current state of world affairs. His warnings have come to pass time and again. (Read our free booklet He Was Right.)

Shortly after America’s victory in World War ii, Mr. Armstrong warned the U.S. would lose the pride in its world-dominating power. During the Korean War, he said the U.S. had won its last war. In 1967, he said mankind is “caught in the vortex of the swiftly accelerating crisis marking utter destruction” of the world.

Mr. Armstrong foretold America’s fall and which civilizations would be on the rise today, including the unofficial leader of the European Union, Germany—a country that was war-torn and divided at the time.

How was he able to do this? He looked to Bible prophecy.

Isaiah 3 prophesies of curses God would bring upon Israel for rebelling against Him. In his book The United States and Britain in Prophecy, Mr. Armstrong proved this prophecy refers to modern-day Israel: the United Kingdom and the U.S. primarily. Verses 1-4 say:

For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah … the mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, The captain of fifty, and the honourable man …. And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

This chapter perfectly describes America today. It explains why the military is experiencing an enlistment crisis: America’s “doings are against the Lord” (verse 8). The people have refused to turn to God so they are being cursed with a broken will (Leviticus 26:19). The enlistment crisis will only end if the U.S. undergoes a complete moral turnaround.

World War iii is coming. Even many who don’t heed the Bible can see that. The U.S. military is not in shape to survive this war. America will fall prey to internal division and growing foreign threats.

However, God is merciful and will forgive those who repent. If people heed God’s warning, He will deliver them from the coming horrors.

To learn the causes of America’s problems and how to be protected from the coming Tribulation, read Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s free booklet Isaiah’s End-Time Vision.