Today's Young Men Are Chicken Hawks

A World War II Veteran has Surprising Words for Millennials Who Won’t Join the Military

BY KELSEY RUPP (15 HOURS AGO) | CULTURE, EDITOR'S CHOICE

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A new poll reveals that even when most Millennials support military intervention against ISIS, they are overwhelmingly unlikely to join the military themselves.

Does that sound cynical? Well, a World War II veteran doesn’t blame them.

Legion of Merit recipient Gaetano Benza, who joined the Army Air Corps in 1943 and fought in Normandy, told Independent Journal that during World War II:

“Guys would quit school and quit jobs to go to war. I can understand why people would not do that today because America is not America anymore.

“Yes, it’s still the greatest country in the world but we’re involved in so many things. During World War II we were out to take out a tyrant; but ISIS is out to take over the world.”

Harvard University’s Institute of Politics polled 2,000 18-to 29-year-olds both before and after the terrorist attacks in Paris. After the attacks, according to the poll released Thursday:

• 60% of young Americans support sending U.S. ground troops to combat ISIS while 40% oppose;
• But 85% “would probably not” or “would definitely not” join the military if additional troops were needed.

Before the Paris attacks:

• Only 47% support the U.S. sending ground troops, while 48% oppose;
• And 81% said they “would probably not” or “would definitely not” join the military if additional troops were needed.

Of the young Americans who said they would strongly consider joining the military, definitely will join if needed or have already joined, they were most likely to be Hispanic by race and Republican by party affiliation. Here are the full results:

Image Credit: Harvard University

And both before and after the Paris attacks, young Americans were most likely to say they “somewhat support” sending U.S. ground troops to fight ISIS:

Image Credit: Harvard University

The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

For Benza, the lack of willingness among young Americans to join the military can be attributed to less enthusiasm for the war effort than in the 1940s and the lack of effective war leaders.

Benza told Independent Journal:

“The enthusiasm (today) is not there like we had when we were joining for the war.

“I was ready to quit school. I was in my last year of graduation. I was going to a navigation school at that time and when war was declared I was 17. And a lot of my friends were ready to quit school. … But you needed mom and dad’s signature to join at 17 so when I was 18 I immediately went into the Army. …

“When we were there we were out there to do a job and complete that job. We fought all the way through to the end.

“The way we plan today is not the way we planned and they don’t have the generals we had: (Douglas) MacArthur, (George) Patton, (Dwight) Eisenhower. They were the ones who fought these battles and they led us into battle.”

The Obama administration’s war against ISIS is waged under the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which was passed in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to challenge al-Qaeda and began the Bush Administration’s War on Terror.

Over 14 years later, some have taken to calling the United States’s efforts in the Middle East “the forever war” and “forever” sounds like an awfully long time to the young.

If it must continue, they apparently don’t want to be a part of it.