The Human Cost of Failed Deterrence Fewer Americans may enlist in the military if the Commander in Chief won’t stop assaults on their bases and ships.
The White House released a photo of President Biden in the Situation Room on Monday, portraying him as large and in charge of a response to the murders of three Americans on Sunday. That’s a nice PR image, but does Mr. Biden realize what a corrosive effect his deterrence failures are having on U.S. public and military morale?
The Pentagon on Monday identified the Americans killed in the Sunday drone attack on a U.S base in Jordan: Sgt. William Rivers, Spc. Kennedy Sanders, and Spc. Breonna Moffett. All hailed from Georgia and ranged in age from 23 to 46. They were killed when a drone eluded the base defenses and hit the container unit that serves as base housing.
Iranian proxy forces have attacked U.S. forces 165 times in the Middle East since Oct. 17. At least 80 Americans have been wounded. If this keeps up, more of the public will wonder why any Americans should be based overseas if the Commander in Chief won’t protect them.
Some 66% of voters in a Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute poll late last year said they support maintaining “military bases around the world to deter attacks and respond quickly if something happens.” But Mr. Biden is neither deterring attacks nor responding quickly.
His failure so far to protect U.S. troops may inflame public suspicion that Americans are dying for little discernible reason in the Middle East. It’s a gift to Donald Trump and a growing left-right isolationism that wonders why Americans should be deterring rogue states. This is dangerous as global threats grow worse—from Europe to the Middle East to the Korean peninsula.
Don’t be surprised if these American casualties also compound America’s worst crisis in military recruiting since the Vietnam War. The Army is some 10,000 enlistees short of its recruitment target. The Navy will accept some recruits who lack even a high school diploma. But who wants to sign up—or encourage a daughter or boyfriend—to be Houthi target practice on a U.S. destroyer in the Red Sea? Or spend months on the receiving end of Iranian drones because Washington won’t deter the enemy?
Mr. Biden on Sunday honored the fallen soldiers as “unwavering in their bravery,” and every modern Commander in Chief has carried the heavy burden of U.S. casualties abroad. But as retired Marine Gen. John Kelly put it in a 2015 speech, what every Gold Star family quietly asks is: Was it worth it?
America has for 50 years relied on volunteers who answered that question, who decided that the dangers were worth the cause of defending their country. America will be in dire straits if it runs out of these men and women, and that is one under-appreciated risk of Mr. Biden’s failure to deter our enemies.
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