One of the most boneheaded moves by a head of government in recent memory was when Germany’s Angela Merkel decided in 2015 to open her country’s borders to “refugees,” in part to bolster its declining workforce. We all now know how that worked out, as it seems migrants have found living on the dole is easier than actually doing a job. It turns out all of these fighting aged young men aren’t as ambitious or enterprising as your average German native.
For context, Germany’s unemployment rate when Merkel opened the borders was roughly 4.3%. Now it’s roughly 6.6%. Drilling down, the unemployment rate among “asylum seekers” in Germany is 25-30%. This means about 425,000 refugees are listed as unemployed. At least half of these people receive government benefits.
Going deeper, the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has found that approximately 70% of refugees in Germany are Muslims from countries that include Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, among others.
A new problem
Ten years after Merkel’s self-destructive policy decision on open borders, Germany has a new problem. Its military – the Bundeswehr — has not been able to hit its recruitment goals. This comes at a time when tensions between Europe and Russia, and even between Europe and the U.S., are intensifying. It’s becoming clear to country and military leadership that it can’t expand its fighting capacity with what it’s got.
Let me see. What would Angela Merkel do?
Maybe she’d offer better pay, better training, and better benefits for military recruits. Check. They’re on it. But whether she’d think that way or not, the Bundeswehr is getting serious about recruitment. It’s seeking to add roughly 80,000 new troops in the near term, and a total of 260,000 more over the next ten years.
Starting this past January, males have been required to fill out a form when they turn 18 that indicates how suitable they are for military service. In addition to the basic perks of service already listed, the Bundeswehr will offer recruits language classes, free rail travel when in uniform, and the opportunity to obtain “new qualifications” for career purposes.
At the moment, Germany does not have a draft. Its military, like that of the U.S., is all-volunteer. But according to the Guardian, more than 50% of Germans support the conscription model of military service, while 63% of younger demographics oppose it.
Against this backdrop, Germany’s leaders didn’t have to be geniuses to look around them and see all these fighting-aged young Muslim men doing nothing. And so the “light bulb” went on, and now they are seriously looking at military recruitment strategies that target “asylum seekers.”
But there’s one big problem for now. You have to be a German citizen to serve in the country’s military. No worries, the elites and intellectuals are on it.
The Expert Council on Integration and Migration, which the German government funds and oversees, is taking a serious look at what may need to happen to grow its military through migrants. In a report entitled, “A matter of trust: Why the German Armed Forces need more people with a migrant background,” the Council sees military service as a way to meet the country’s military recruitment targets, while assimilating more migrants into German society. A first step in this process would be to change to rules so that non-citizens could serve, or to use the military service as a condition for obtaining citizenship.
Comedian John Cleese seems to think all of this is a worthy idea. Or maybe he just thinks it's funny.
Interesting idea
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) February 20, 2026
A chance to see whether some migrants would fight
for their new country
It might be more than people expect, and would be an encouraging sign of a desire to integrate https://t.co/ZSbNusdIrO
Writing in Foreign Policy, Adham Sahloul of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) said, “While politicians wring their hands over both issues separately, an opportunity has been hiding in plain sight. European countries should create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants willing to serve in their armed forces.”
So there it is. The great replacement theory as a solution to military recruitment challenges. For now, we’re talking about Europe, but put a Democrat in the White House, and you’re sure to see a major drop-off in military recruitment and re-enlistments in this country. Europe is a proving ground for what the globalist left would ultimately like to see happen in America.
Before going any further, let’s look at the article’s author’s bonafides. Sahloul checks a lot of boxes worth noting. As I've said before, a common adage in my field is that if you know what's happening, you don't know anything, but if you know who's involved, you know everything.
Outside of serving as a senior fellow with the Middle East Security Program at CNAS, Sahloul was a “U.S. national security official,” and served as a special advisor in the Biden-Harris administration from 2022-2025 at the Department of Defense (DOD) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Unless I’m reading that wrong, it appears that at least part of his role was to serve as an interlocutor between the Biden administration, DOD, perhaps an intelligence agency or two, and the infamous NGO known as USAID.
Someone like that would know a thing or two. Someone like that would also have a mission of sorts that I’d never accept on face value. You may recall that USAID was the NGO crawling with so many problems, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had to shut it down.
So when I see a bio such as that, combined with an opinion piece advocating for the recruitment of migrants for Europe’s defense, I can’t help but wonder a few things.
What's the endgame?
The overarching question is, “What’s the endgame?” But to get to that, you have to consider other questions.
Who in the international military industrial complex wants illegal aliens to serve in Europe’s military? Why? And ultimately, how will all of this be used to ricochet back into the U.S. to launch the same campaign here?
This proposition would be difficult for now, because under the Trump administration, the military is blowing its recruiting numbers away. But if you put a Democrat back in the White House, it’s pretty much understood that military recruitment efforts would go off a cliff.
Democrats don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing if they know where they can draw other military recruits from, particularly recruits who may feel the same way about America as they do.
This is where it starts. First, opinion pieces such as this one show up in niche media like Foreign Policy. Messaging is developed and tested. Narratives are honed. Then it's not long before legacy consumer media starts to make this an issue. You start to see fake news headlines about the American military's "recruiting crisis," or its "diversity crisis." Then the solution to the fake crisis is offered up: recruit illegal immigrants.
The script practically writes itself. If you’re against illegals who weren’t born here serving in your country’s military, you’re a racist. If you’re skeptical of the loyalties of an up-until-now “illegal” Muslim fighting force, in Europe or here, you’re a racist. If you’re concerned that if this fighting force is sent to wage war in a Muslim country or against a Muslim foe, it won’t give its best effort, you’re a racist. That’s how this will go.
And so, for the left, Europe is the low-hanging fruit on this issue. Install a large fighting force of foreign-born, most likely Muslim troops, to defend the continent. I mean, what could go wrong?
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