Warfighting, while largely a rote memorization and muscle memory exercise in many ways, is only getting more complex and requires more capability. Western doct

Warfighting, while largely a rote memorization and muscle memory exercise in many ways, is only getting more complex and requires more capability. Western doctrine also leans more than ever on the people being the valuable part of the war machine. This is because you can’t retrain as easily as you can build more tanks when training is now measured in months/years vs. weeks. And because battlefield experience is worth far far more than anyone generally understands. If you read the detailed accounts of this program, it’s clear that it wasn’t some inclusivity exercise. They wanted cheap fodder. They really just got a lot of battlefield liability. We’re witnessing what a “soldier comes second” doctrine looks like in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Of course I’m all for better support for the less mentally capable. But let’s not pretend that fighting in a war doesn’t require intelligence.