Mercenary group Wagner — which the U.S. government recently labeled a “transnational criminal network” — has released a new recruiting video specifically aimed at disgruntled former military members.
It hits on the disenchantment that many soldiers anecdotally report after realizing that the pointless Middle East wars of the last twenty years were not, in fact, about national security at all. It also appeals to viewers on the right side of the American culture war.
“This is not the America the Founding Fathers dreamed of,” the narration goes in a thick Russian accent against B-roll of American Revolution battle scenes.
This is a brilliant strategy from a return-on-investment perspective. The U.S. is home to 16 million veterans, many of whom could likely be ideologically sympathetic to the Russian cause, just waiting to be tapped. The caliber of recruits from these ranks will generally be higher than the pool of convicts with no military background that Wagner has also reportedly recruited.
Contrast Wagner’s straight-to-the-point video to the CIA’s ultra-woke, maximum-cringe recruiting profile of a diverse “woman of color” “cisgender millennial who’s been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder” for an illustration of Western decline.
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