to pre pandemic levels, as trends indicate people are traveling more, but spending less still a boost in visitor numbers is welcome use for small business owners. maybe there were no people on the street doing the pandemic. so what could i do? wrong was under locked down to look at how to stay home to our business are all rely on the tories. she's more people coming to major. my business will be better. he hopes the hardest point in his working life is behind him. now he says he wants to focus on the simple pleasures, sunny weather, good business, and the smiles of his customers. jessica washington out to sera beijing. ah, your geology 0 be so robin in doha, reminder of our top stories. there are reports of heavy fighting around the presidential palace in saddam's capital cartoon. despite an extended cease fire. the conflict between the army and paramilitary rapid support forces is now in its

3rd week. and under a man city, that's the twin city of the capital, harder to him, people have been hearing artillery strikes or repeatedly in the early hours of the morning, forcing them to stay at home. unable to leave to get busy commodities or to be able to make it out of the country, then there's the law, them parts of the capital. there's been also artillery tribes and asked rags launch by the sudanese army against arissa physicians. so people there as well say they see no signs of this extended cease fire and around the vicinity of the presidential palace and the general command of the army. this also been ongoing battles between the 2 sides. the army controls the, the general command right now, but the r s f has control of the republican palace or the presidential palace. and the army has been trying to get it back from the 1st day of fighting. those who do not mothers to escape are leaving saddam any way. they can a vessel very nearly 2000 evacuees has arrived at the port of july in saudi arabia, citizens of saudi arabia and iran are amongst those on board authorities in crime,

in blaming a ukrainian drains, trying for a blast at the fuel death. having the whole city as best of all these storage tank exploded on saturday, causing a fire covering 1000 square meters. the casualties reported that the festival says the blaze has been extinguished. frances calling for the by john to remove checkpoints on the latch in colorado. it's the only road connecting all media with the disputed dakota kind of region checkpoints, or stablished. last weekend. the sister of north korea's leader has warned that an agreement between south korea on the u. s. to strengthen nuclear, terrans will lead to serious danger. hymir jones says john yang will have to perfect its own nuclear deterrence and response. the corporation agreement was announced on wednesday during a visit to the white house by south chris president. you look, you're following stories on our website at al jazeera dot com, of calls to don, remains our top story that the website updated throughout the day. during okay to,

we'll have the news, i just in the half hour time to stay with us. here on al jazeera, the united kingdom look round and new monet unmade, the same king charles, the 3rd is planning a ceremony. the owner's historic traditions. while embracing a new motto, colo the pageantry from westminster abbey amount is in the u. s. military is facing its greatest recruitment crisis in 50 years. military leaders say they are struggling to hit their enlistment targets because most potential recruits simply do not meet the military's eligibility standards. while data shows that over half of young people simply do not see a future in the armed forces. many attribute this to information about the military's internal culture being more readily available in this day and age, including reports of racism and sexual harassment and fears of lack of adequate care and support for veterans. others argue that the decline in recruitment has

more to do with how young people view the military and a shift and personal beliefs when it comes to war. so what is behind this decline? and are we witnessing a change and americans relationship to the military? that's our conversation this week. it up front special. ah, joining us is minissha real, some veteran of the u. s. army and member of truth in recruitment, a non profit group, educating young people on the consequences of a military career. richard brooks shires, a u. s. army veteran and co founder of the black veterans project and caitlin constantine is the u. s. marine corps veteran and founding member of gamers for peace. a group dedicated to speaking truth to war in digital spaces, in order to counter military recruitment. i want to thank you all for joining me on up front, caitlin, i'm going to start with you. 2022 was the worst year for military recruitment since the u. s. draft ended in 1973 with the army in particular,

struggling to meet its goals. military officials appointed to the fact that just 23 percent of young people ages 17 to 2324. excuse me. meet the military's health and fitness and academic standards. you counsel young people about recruitment. what would you say are the main factors that keep perspective recruits from joining? i think they're correct and that a lot of the immigration would not qualify for military service in the 1st place. additionally, i do think that kenzie, the generation after us, i do think that they are much more skeptical of military service. there is a study from the military family advisory network that saw an 11 percent decrease in service members who would recommend military service to their families. as of at the, i believe 2022. so there is a shift in a, in the perception of military service in addition to a lot of systemic problems like lack of education and lack of access to a,

to decent food and poverty that is making a lot of the population not very suitable for military service when he said there was a survey in 2019 up by the center for american progress. and in this study found out that a majority of gin z, respondents age of $17.00 to $24.00, agreed that quote, the wars in the middle east in afghanistan were a waste of time lives and tax payer money. and they did nothing to make us safer at home. that's a quote. do you see an ideological shift in how young people are perceiving the u. s. military and if so, what are the ways it it's changed? absolutely, and i think if we start with how the u. s. was created to begin with, we know that the u. s. was born out of exploitation slavery, the theft of land and the u. s. military was born out of that same character. and so our generations now have had way more access to the information and have been

challenged in ways that have grown them. unlike previous generations where those generations were taught not to question a, the u. s. government and not to question why we're going to war. but that it your duties ago, and if you're a good citizen, then you'll go. but now our, our youth are, are not being fooled by these narratives and climate change i think has a lot to do with that. and you have access to information on the front lines of resistance, sort of violence against the land. like you have standing rock, you have missing a murdered indigenous women. you have the hypocrisies and contradictions of the u. s. right in our faces. and we're able to talk about it now in ways that we weren't able to talk about it before, especially after the trump era. and so with the u. s being the largest polluter in the world, the largest holder of real estate in the world with more than 4800 defense sites,

everywhere on all continents. in more than 160 countries. i think jen z is really connected with what the impacts of that are and, and as you said in that, in that quote, i mean, absolutely. it was a complete waste of life for all parties concerned to go to war and for what? today, with the internet, young people have all kinds of access to the realities of war, the violence, the bodies, the harm, the soldiers suffer. in also the harm that soldiers cause do you think that those things are not only changing people's perception of war, which i think is we could agree on, but isn't making people less likely to want to enlist kaitlin? would you agree with that? i would agree with that, i think that with the rise of the digital age and greater access to all of this information we, we have a box that literally contains almost all of the information in the world in our

pocket, most of the time and gen z grew up with that, i really do think that having that access and having at ready you can just google us military war crime and have a list right in front of you within seconds. so i do think that that is having a very real effect on people's desire to unless it's, it's definitely being viewed as more of a rigid decision or a rigid decision making process rather than oh, my dad did this. so i can do this type of a deal. i wanna insert that. what, what's often missing from this conversation is that military services, intergenerational, they're, they're usually through things that indicate very well whether someone will join the military. it's whether they come from a military family. they grow up near military base and in socioeconomic status. right? and i think we're what, what's, what's happening is that you have general generations of veterans that have gone through unjust wars. you also have generations of veterans who have been fighting to get access because they have to live in deplorable conditions outside of just war. right. you have, you have bases that are rife with, with mold i, i,

when i was a combat medic, i worked in an 8 station on a base in germany, been condemned by the german government and that was our medical center. oh, so you know, i think that that like the extent to which these problems exacerbate themselves when you, when you get out and you don't, you can't get access to basic health care or disability compensation. and it is affecting the generations that are growing up, watching their fathers or their grandfathers or grandmothers. they're on their sisters not struggle with access. we just had our country past the biggest veterans bill in history to try to, to try to address that issue because that is the real issue is that people have been locked out and sometimes it, depending on the color, skin generationally, from benefits. right. and so the appeal on that the military has the that the, the lie that they can sometimes propagate, that you'll be better off if you, sir, like the veneer of that is so diluted now. and mary,

that with the information that you can so readily find online is no surprise that young people can kind of see right through. it is well documented that military recruiters target young people from low income neighborhoods over 80 percent of people who enlist, come from households with lower incomes. recruits are offered attractive signing bonuses, offers to pay for education and recruitment materials. emphasize the career opportunities of joining the military. keeping in mind that you as poverty is steadily growing in terms of the poverty rate over the last few years has actually become a full fledged poverty direct. yeah, i believe so. and listen to that, that does not negate that if you are able to go into the military, have a full career actually gain access to your benefits that you can't be better off. but so many folks is specifically marginalized. people from marginalized communities are the ones left holding the bag of falling through the cracks, struggling to obtain access. and in my work kind of focuses as explicitly on the black community and if the effects there. well, i mean, that's a great point because black folk are over represented in the military,

we make up over 17 percent of active duty members. for now, for con, next week we make up wells and a half to 13 percent of the u. s. population depending on the year. so, you know, there's a 2019 survey of active duty service members that found that more than half of minority service member say they have personally witnessed examples of white nationalism of ideological driven racism within the rank. one of the other, given the high number of reports of racism, why we still join is so heavy because there's a, there's a illusion of lack of oper. no, not, not just an illusion. it or it's actually a lack of absolutely. in a lot of these neighborhoods that, that black youth are being pulled from and that's been the case for decades now. and, and guess what? you get out of the military, even if you serve 20 years, are likely returning to those poor resource pork neighborhoods. we have family reside, right. so, oh yeah, no that,

that absolutely has. when i want to put it for, for minute, the department of defense estimates that in 2021 close 236000 active duty service members experienced unwanted sexual contact. more than half of them women, a 3rd who reported i want to stress that were discharged within one year. the military has claimed that they're making significant reforms, or they want to address the culture that enables sexual violence in the military. but those same 2021 department of defense statistics show some of the highest estimates for unwanted sexual contact since they started keeping records back in 2004. i guess my question is simply, is that what does the military doing really prevent sexual violence? they're not really trying to prevent that rape as a weapon of war. it's sanctioned. it's accept that said more about that. explain

what you me when you say that. so i've said it a lot and i always get a, an angry response. but it's true if we actually take the time to listen to the populations that we are invading and with our wars of conquests and wars of choice . and when we actually take a look at their dana, that they're presenting about the sex crimes that occur from military personnel on to their community is on to their children on to their young women. then you can actually see the whole picture. and when you look at historically, the lack of adjudication that's occurred inside the military with military sexual violence because of the good character defense. because of all the reasons why maintaining good order and discipline all the excuses that leadership maintains, in order to perpetuate the use and acceptance of this weapon of war. then it makes sense to anyone. ah, well, to me that we share perpetrators. how am i going to believe as

a person who went through this myself, who witnessed it constantly, every duty station that i was at i was wearing the teams uniform. it happened to me. so of course, it's gonna happen where, where people are stationed, where we're occupying, where we're taught to humanize those people. so if order in discipline and structure and rules are part of what makes the military the military, then why is it so hard to get justice? when you say something about it, why is ineligible getting discharges? why are stuck with this number? a 3rd of those who reported would discharge that. a 3rd people accused a feller, the people who said i got assaulted. i got touched, i got the harm done to me. a 3rd of those people are born within 12 months. how? because it keeps you quiet because it takes you or moves you, you become the problem. if you're the one who speaks up, if you report, that's why there's retaliation. and there's a lot of talking about preventing it about stopping it,

about supporting people if they report. but that doesn't actually happen, caitlin, i see you nodding. i agree with moneisha. i mean one thing is she saying, where is not just within the ranks, it is also where service members are stationed. it doesn't just have to be an active war. we have bases in what, over 80 countries and pick any one of them. you can definitely see that effects. i also experienced as while i was active duty in the marine corps wearing the same uniform. and one thing that i noticed all of these briefs about prevention, all of these briefs about what to do if it happens and how to report it, it is framed as how not to get in trouble. it's low, be careful if you have a beer and this other person also has a beer. you need to be careful. it's not i, it's not based on in respect. it's always i remember this one very like we're turning point for me. it was during a brief end, it was, i think of bull, i believe a gunnery sergeant was giving the sapir brief, which is a sexual assault,

sexual assault prevention and response program. and he asks, why is this such a bad thing? and the 1st person to raise their hand said because it affects unit cohesion. and now i'm not saying that that person is wrong, but that wouldn't be my 1st. it wouldn't be my birthday. is that? yeah, exactly. it's a bad thing to do, should be the 1st answer, right. and because it takes away bodily autonomy abuses your power, all of these different things, but it was always framed in how not to get trouble, egg get in trouble and how it affects your unit as opposed to basic respect for human bodily autonomy, right? that's why it doesn't go away when you report. that's why the person who report it goes away. that's why i experienced mild read of, you know, deathly not to the level of some people but mild retaliation because i was the problem by making waves iraq, the boat. and so they want that to go away because that means they don't have to deal with the core of it, which is so much of this is happening to women in some, i'm curious to know as a man who served in the military. what do you see?

do you see that discourse of their talking about the how not, what do you see the harm? do you see what julia? gov and it doesn't just affect women? i mean, i think the statistics around actual saw of the around a male sexual assault in the military are, are horrendous as well. and the unit cohesion argument, i'm glad that you brought that up because i served under don't ask themselves as a, as a, as a gay soldier. so i understand the harms and, and the excuse that they can make about including inclusion or the dangers of inclusion. because how it might affect unit cohesion, but it's also the same argument that they used against black people. 75 years ago, this year is a 75th anniversary of the desegregation of the military. and they talked about how in world war 2, when they were doing surveys, when they were preparing for after world war 2, up to 940, to desegregate the vast majority of people, the military were against it because they felt it would disrupt unit cohesion, right? so i think that, that, that, that, that's a, that's a common response. it's a disturbing response. kaitlin. a, i've been seeing a lot of

a recruitment efforts in digital entertainment spaces. now, a big boom in it, frankly, especially video games. the military's had a hand in the creation of somebody's video games for decades, but now all 6 branches of the u. s. military have electronic sports teams for competitive video gaming and partnerships with popular video game players on platforms like youtube and twitch, you work with gamers for peace. that's where i'm going you on this a group that, of course, is dedicated, as you say, to speaking truth, to war in digital spaces, in order to counter military recruitment. can you explain how digital recruitment, with video games works and, and what we should do about it? so sure, well you already have a gate 1st person shooter games like c o, d 1st person shooter games like america's army, that's literally sanctioned by, by the, by the u. s. army is now been decommission, but it was

a long running for you to play game and, and all of these other games a have military themes and i'm not telling you not to play these games is not the point of this, but they do serve a propaganda purpose just like military movies do it is similar only in video games you as a player have a hand in how all of that goes and a lot of them have pretty simplistic story lines right where the protagonist a is trying his best to defeat the enemy. what, what, you know, whatever the particular enemy for that game story light is, and is generally in a good versus evil sort of paradigm. and so when you couple the at, with these e sports games that are run by, they're not recruiters, but they are recruiters because they're serving a recruiting purpose, no matter what they say. even though the navy, in order to get that job you, they have to go through the same recruiting, trading that a navy recruiter would have to go through. so you couple that together there you have people being able to form a paris social relationship that you would with any other twit streamer while

they're playing these very over simplified game if i'd versions of war. and so you have this effect of i'd simultaneously trivializing war and military service while also talking to someone who was actively in that military service, talking it up and getting people to either support it or looked upon it positively like a recruiter would. and so you have this on twitch with a very, a very young audience excuse very, very young. and, and it's kind of a gold mine for recruiters because it's huge, very young, excuse, very male too. and so you kind of have this double edge sword, of like the perfect storm of recruiting for this is very few regulations involved. there's not, there's not a lot of safeguards would you call for regulation of this? would you call for them to be completely banned out, or what would, what would you call for and respond? i mean, my ideal to be completely band. but right now the regulations are coming from which they're not coming from the government. like for example, the u. s. army,

i got told by twist that they had to stop. they had to cease this immediately because they used a fake x box controller. give away that when you clicked on it was actually a recruiting website. you said data mine and from 80 my god, people clicking on it. right. um, and this was not the government saying you can't do that with a switch saying, hey, this goes against our guideline squeezed on, well, when would a corporation heard? was that corporations, there was a, this is too far for us, right? that's what i, that's what i get really nervous. research suggest that players of violent video games view their opponents. ah, as less human. this is concerning to me because we consider that military video game plots are often constructed in ways that mirror real life conflicts around the globe. a 2016 study looking at a 1st person shooter video game found that some of the most common enemies a multiple games. in fact, they say they study this. some of the most common enemies were russian ultra nationalists. then latin american and middle eastern terrorists. when the

military's invested in these types of games, does it run the risk of making potential soldiers ah view other people the other are as less human? i notice you will have caitlin. but eyes are also seen when he said, nodding to, i gotta ask you, what would you say? yes, and i, i really want to encourage people to critically examine the role of the american psychological association and all of this, particularly the division of military psychology. because when we go back to the beginning of military recruitment, even during the draft during world war 2, and after the draft, when we moved into the poverty draft, when they had to get creative on how to build their force and create a more lethal force. when they couldn't legally mandate you to be in there force, it goes all the way back to there and going through military training. the objective is for you to dehumanize the manufactured enemy on command. it's to,

to, to build your own capacity to the humanise. another, a person where, regardless of whether or not you know that because of a story that's told to you. so that's exactly what hollywood does. that's exactly what video games do. especially with the move toward and cyber warfare drawn warfare and all of these, you know, as, as the military technology advances. so to must, the training technology. and how convenient for the military, for the us government use of the military to have that training already integrated into its recruitment propaganda. wow. which video games are perfect for that? they're absolutely perfect for that. richard oak, according to the recently launched veterans justice commission, many veterans struggle with mental health challenges, substance abuse, homelessness criminality. all these things, after leaving the military, roughly one 3rd of veteran's report having been arrested or booked into jail after

leaving the military, at least once in their lives. we often hear about the highly complex process veterans are forced to navigate in order to access adequate care for injuries for illnesses and especially for post traumatic stress disorder, or p t s. d a. how much does knowing what we know now about p t as the another emotional, emotional, psychological issues suffer by veterans and the struggle to access adequate care for them. how much does that play in that people not wanting to enlist? like are people like, you know what this is going to in for me that yeah, let, i guess let me pay a human story with this. so i'm glad you brought up p t s d. so we like hundreds project partner with the a law school to do a study of the last 20 years of disability compensation by, by the a. and we're able to show statistically significant disparities specifically around ptc at 29 percent disparity and now rates that black. that's face writes, when you think about that, the disparities when it comes to poverty, that black,

that's a face are twice as likely they represent a full 3rd of the homeless veteran population in the country and in the list can go on and on. but conley monk essentially is taking that data. he is a found a suit, is a vietnam that who found a suit 3 l. a in federal court in um, in this past november. and so calmly story, i think it is, is emblematic because he joined up as a volunteer and the late the late sixty's went to vietnam, did 2 tours as, as a marine their god got into an altercation when someone called him a racial epithet. and next thing, you know, he was on the other side of a dishonorable discharge. it took him 40 years of fighting to get access to the health care disability compensation to get. he wasn't able to use his g, i build a by home for, for, for, for decades he wasn't able to gain access education benefits. and he is sewing up for back pay for what the v a should have. good been giving him the whole time. but

he's also suing on behalf of his deceased father, who was a world war to veteran and return. it didn't get access to the g. i bill. and i think a carly story, this is one. this is common, this is common. intergenerational goes back to the composition about intergenerational. ah, the intergenerational impact on families, collies, both of cali sons did not join the military. right. they, they became law enforcement. right. but they were, they, they didn't join up there on my age. so i, they, and, and, and, and i, and i highly doubt that, that, that, that generations, that proceed them. well, we'll probably have a very, a very direct conversation about the real consequences of joining. but also the struggles of the families had intergenerational lee of going off serving in america's wars, having to face all untold levels of, of discrimination. and then to come back and not even have equitable access to the benefits that the government is promised. recently joined in 1st place. right and for the black community, you're talking about compounded in these statistics, tens of billions of dollars siphoned out of the black community because the

government had made good on its promise to black veterans who serv absolutely. lanesha caitlin? ah, richard, thank you so much for joining me on up front. everyone that is our show up front. we'll be back next week with ah ah, with

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