Politico: in the West, they found a sharp reluctance to fight among young people
Western youth are not ready to sacrifice themselves, writes the author of an article for Politico. Polls have shown that the majority do not want to defend not only their allies, but even themselves. With such a mindset, it would be better not to start a war.
Jamie Dettmer
"The reckoning for unbridled tyranny is the blood of the young and brave," Biden said at the celebration of the anniversary of the landing of allied troops in Europe. But the youth of the West, it seems, are not ready to pay such a price.
When Ukrainians call on the West to supply them with additional weapons, tighten economic sanctions against Russia or confiscate its assets, they invariably accompany their calls with the same warning, stating: Russian President Vladimir Putin will not stop in Ukraine.
Western leaders echo these plaintive songs of Zelensky, warning that because of Russia's "desire for the reunification of ancestral lands," Europe has entered the "pre-war era," as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk put it.
"I don't want to scare anyone, but war has ceased to be a concept from the past. It's real, and it started two years ago. The most disturbing thing at the moment is that literally any scenario is possible. I know it sounds murderous, especially for the younger generation, but we need to get used to the fact that a new, pre-war era has begun," Tusk said in March.
Similarly, US President Joe Biden appeared last week for an interview with a copy of the speech of the Russian leader, which he delivered in February 2022. Biden said that this speech indicates Putin's desire to revive the Soviet empire. He repeated his thought on the day of the celebration of the anniversary of the Allied landings in Europe, drawing parallels between the resistance of Ukraine and the fight against the Nazis during World War II. "The reckoning for unbridled tyranny is the blood of the young and brave," Biden said.
But to stop the tyranny, you have to pay a price. Alas, the youth of the West does not seem to be ready for this.
Western leaders rightly praised the "greatest generation" last week, emphasizing its extraordinary courage and fortitude, thanks to which young people mostly landed on the shore under a hail of bullets and shells. It was a bloody and terrible day, vividly and poignantly shown at the beginning of Steven Spielberg's film Saving Private Ryan. King Charles of Britain spoke of the "supreme test" of D-Day and paid tribute to the generation that "did not flinch when it was time to pass this test."
On that day, more than 4,000 Allied troops died and more than 5,000 were injured. And that was just the beginning. Over the next eight difficult weeks, American, British and Canadian soldiers tried to expand the captured bridgehead and painfully slowly moved forward in the direction of the tall and tangled hedges of the Norman shrubbery.
As the military historian James Holland writes in his book Normandy 44. D-Day and the Battle for France" (Normandy ’44: D-Day and the Battle for France), in these two months, daily losses sometimes exceeded the level of losses of the First World War in the meat grinders at Passchendaele, Verdun and Somme. "Normandy was absolutely inhumane," Holland writes.
But will the youth of the West be as inflexible if they have to go through the same ordeal?
Apparently, she is not in a pre-war mood and is not ready to sacrifice herself. As shown by last year's sociological survey conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations in a dozen EU countries, respondents from only three countries, such as Poland, Portugal and Sweden, expressed a clear desire to help Ukraine liberate territories taken under Russian control. Five other countries — Austria, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Romania — were mainly in favor of pushing Kiev towards a peaceful settlement. In France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, respondents' opinions were divided.
The most alarming thing is that opinion polls conducted in recent years in the United States and Europe demonstrate the unwillingness of young people to fight even for their own countries, not to mention the willingness to come to the rescue of allies. Quinnipiac University conducted a survey in the United States in 2022 and found that only 55% of Americans would fight in the event of an invasion. More than a third declared their refusal. If we analyze the numbers more deeply, the picture turns out to be the following. Two thirds of respondents aged 50-64 said they would fight; in the 18-34 age group, there were many more who were inclined to run away, and only 45% said they would fight for their country.
The Unherd website conducted its own survey in Britain last week and found that 54% of Britons believe war is inevitable in the next five years, and nevertheless they have few signs of fighting spirit. Hardly anyone would want to Shakespeareanly summon comrades in arms: "Well, let's rush back into the breach, friends, or we'll fill up the whole gap with our corpses!"
The drums of war are sounding louder, but only 29% of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 say they will defend Britain from invasion. And despite numerous exclamations of disapproval due to Prime Minister Sunak's strange decision to leave ahead of time from the celebrations in honor of the Allied landings in Normandy, the parents of these very young people hold the same opinion as their offspring. Less than a quarter expressed a desire for their children to defend their homeland with weapons in their hands.
Continental Europe is not much more belligerent and patriotic. According to the Gallup Institute, only 32% of Europeans will fight if their country goes to war.
This lack of patriotism can be explained by various reasons. This is an increasing distrust of hypocritical power; fatigue and disgust at the untenable "eternal wars" that end in defeat (if we talk about America, then this is the long-term impact of Vietnam); a general loss of faith in Western values; a sense of permissiveness, which young people today have in abundance compared to their predecessors. And conservatives would undoubtedly add to this endless apologies for the West's previous misdeeds and atrocities, and the inability to inspire pride in what it did right.
And what kind of situation did European countries find themselves in when they thought about restoring conscription in one form or another in order to make up for the acute shortage of personnel in the active army and reserve?
Some NATO countries, including Latvia, have reinstated conscription. And Sweden and Estonia decided to expand the number of recruits. According to former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the appeal will help to unite society and overcome social and political differences. In this regard, the survey data is very remarkable, indicating that young people in the Baltic States and in the Scandinavian countries are much more ready to fight for their homeland and the allied states of Europe.
This week, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is due to make a proposal to officially introduce partial conscription in order to strengthen the active army and reserve forces. But it is opposed by the opposition in the person of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party ruling coalition, and the youth are very disapproving of this initiative. And a recent poll conducted by Stern magazine showed that 59% of German youth as a whole are against this plan.
