px_eliezer_
Armed forces all over the world have trouble recruiting in the last 10-20 years, for MANY reasons. So NOT just the USA and Canada.
I can't speak to other countries considering the countries I'm most familiar with are USA and Canada, and countries with mandatory conscription, and have heard the sentiments I've relayed above concerning both USA and Canada. It's possible those same sentiments exist for the same reasons in EU countries and I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case.
Has a country like Germany lowered the bar on who they're letting into the military? Googling suggests it started around 2017. If I had more idle time I'd probably look and see if there was a reciprocal decline in military applicants that coincided with the push to let anyone and everyone in the military.
I suspect that you and I may have different opinions on what is "desirable".
Are you sure? I would expect that the two of us would expect applicants to be physically fit and mentally sound at the very least. Perhaps we'd diverge on the 'grit' and 'determination' we'd like to see in our applicants, and maybe on their appearance, certainly I'm not a fan of dyed hair with nose rings while you might not care.
electronic warfare to cyberattacks/cyberdefense to propaganda measures
The most competent IT people I've ever worked with were veterans I'd classify as being desirable. We don't need to lower the bar to attract competent people with technological skills, we simply need to identify them early on in their military career.
Not really - people are trained to operate these devices, just as people were trained to operate advanced weapons of warfare in the past. The military doesn't say, "hey, let's recruit some fat kids with ashtma in here who know how to fly drones", instead they train soldiers that have an aptitude for technology or controlling these devices.
But also, some of this equipment is controlled by people outside of the military chain of command.
Any person who is ready, willing, and able to do the job is desirable.
I'm sure most people agree with that. The problem is that there's a perception that our militaries are excluding one or two of those words from the recruitment process with some of the more recent endeavors.
As I wrote above, listen to some of the active serving members who have a lot to say on this topic. I could say a few things that might better illustrate the issue but they would run afoul of the forum despite being true. The issue is most certainly not with the "ready, willing, and able".