‘American Sniper’, ‘GI Joe’, ‘Top Gun’… the stories of American soldiers who ‘risked’ their lives to save the nation and live a legacy of ‘honor’.

However, the narrative being spun by Hollywood, despite working early on, such as during WWII, is no longer efficient when it comes to recruiting new soldiers to go and die offshore to serve the elite benefitting from the suffering of both the soldiers in question and civilians abroad.

Therefore, the United States has been forced to resort to numerous unconventional ways of recruiting fresh soldiers to fuel the killing machine that is the military-industrial complex.  

The US army is no longer holding onto the once-glorious hegemonic power - it is now holding onto dear life as it struggles to stay above water and gain strength in its numbers.

Back in February 2022, the Pentagon revealed that the US Army planned to recruit 70,000 people. However, by June 2022, the army dropped the number to 60,000, and by the end of the fiscal year in September, only 45,000 were enlisted.

Low in numbers but high in hopes - low in strength but high in desperation.

Young men and women aren’t seeing eye to eye anymore with the American patriotic spirit. Times have changed, and so have priorities and principles.

The youth was once willing to let go of the 9-5 desk job and run to the front lines for America. Now, as newer generations are born with different needs to meet the changing times and technologies, not many are as willing and not many are finding war as attractive to the American mind as it used to be.

This sounded a Code Red alarm in the Pentagon. They’ve tried tactics such as bonus incentives, and benefits, and added new laws to serve the needs of recruits. Now they’ve upgraded the eligibility requirements in an attempt to boost numbers which shows the US’ willingness now to give up its own principles just to maintain its global military ranking.

Now, you can get your free US citizenship just by joining the army.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the American armed forces have become laughably the epitome of just that. 

Failure to launch 

Why are the numbers so low that would make the US steep even lower? Increasing mental health issues is a mere one reason.

Suicide rates in the US Army have been fluctuating year-on-year but have remained mostly on a high. Defense Department data shows that there were 328 suicides by active-duty service members in 2021, compared with 384 in 2020.

DoD data also shows that suicides jumped by more than 40% between 2015 and 2020, while a 15% increase was seen in 2020 alone.

In an effort to stop the suicide numbers from soaring, the Pentagon has taken the initiative to enforce a law that requires the provision of mental health services for troops seeking help called The Brandon Act, among other programs for awareness and more wellness checks.

Passed into law as part of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the act was signed by Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert Cisneros and also allows service members and active-duty troops to ask for help confidentially outside the chain of command.

The act is named after Brandon Caserta, a 21-year-old sailor who committed suicide at the US Naval Air Station Norfolk in June 2018 after he informed his parents in several letters that he was constantly being hazed and bullied in the Navy.

Enforcing laws to protect mental health, a prominently tackled issue by the current generation, was not enough to increase recruitment. So, the Americans jump to the next big thing: the deep dark web of social media. 

Enticing the expendables 

Gen Z, or those born after 1997, prioritize mental health, and topics like diversity and world peace more than previous generations surely because their time serves a different purpose. 

However, to Gen Z lies a weakness that the Pentagon knew how to abuse – social media. The US armed forces found ways to exploit and entice the American youth through the small screen that never parts them.  

Even Michael Strobl, the assistant deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs for the Marine Corps, indicated during a Senate panel last September that recruiting efforts have to be upgraded to the reality.

"Current recruitment efforts rely too much on an outdated, ‘telephone book-era’ method to recruit youth through high school directories rather than focusing on social media," Strobl pointed out.

Through platforms like TikTok and Instagram, recruiters are able to hunt for potential candidates to join the army and get those numbers back up again. They don’t even do the recruiting themselves, since they disguise themselves behind the mask of TikTok influencers, like Hailey Lujan.

Lujan is the most prominent of these "appealing" young ladies in uniform who publish sexually suggestive material and subliminal appeals to enlist. The 21-year-old creates footage for her 731,000 TikTok fans that sugarcoat life in the Army in between thirst traps (dressing suggestively) and memes.

In a recent video, she advises viewers to "become a farmer or a soldier instead of going to college." "Just some advice for the next generation: it's okay to not be in school. I left college early. I'm doing fantastic, too," she says.

By using “e-girls” to lure in the young audience, officials are capable of recruiting a generation preaching peace to fight a blood-shedding war. The next target has become the youth outside of American soil that fantasizes about living the American dream.

Barking up the wrong tree?

Are you not a US citizen or a legal permanent resident of the nation? Do you not meet the eligibility requirements? No problem! We’ll take care of all that for you, just enlist and set sail on your American dream today. All you have to do is go through basic combat training, learn the ropes, kill a few innocent people, and get a yearly bonus and discounts everywhere you go.

The only free cheese is in the mousetrap, which means nothing really is free; there’s always a catch.

Recruiters began advertising short videos in different languages to target the top 10 countries that recruits come from during the year before, such as Nepal, Kenya, and The Philippines.

Targets have been those particularly seeking employment, education benefits, financial aid, and training.

It’s worth mentioning that being an active-duty member of the US Army includes an attractive package of free education, military discounts on retail, low to no-cost health care, and added benefits for the member’s family.

According to Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth, this year’s recruitment goal must meet 65,000 soldiers - 20,000 more than last year.

Cited in a report by Spectrum News, the fiscal year 2024 Budget Request for Military Readiness hearing back in April demonstrated that both the Army and Air Force predict that they’ll miss their goal by 10,000 soldiers. 

If the tactic applied by the Pentagon towards foreigners and social media fanatics actually proves successful, the ‘undefeated’ American army may become a make-up of non-eligible foreigners and social media babies who may in turn and over time begin to enforce their own laws and change that of the military.

If the tactic doesn’t work, and the military begins to really dwindle in number and strength, not only will the Pentagon resort to even harsher measures, but US hegemony will begin to fade drastically like the US dollar at the moment. Without the strength of its army, the US is just bark and no bite.

Will the generation of TikTok dancing and thirst trapping save the film-hero American army? Will the plot to increase numbers by seducing recruits via online groups work, to go from foreigner or resident to full-on star-spangled flag-pledging American GI Joe?