A lot of people are fantasizing about being soldiers these days. The video game Modern Warfare 2: Call of Duty was released last week. Rated “mature” for profanity, drugs, blood and intense violence—and supposedly played only by those over 17—the game allows players to control soldiers from a first-person point of view as they kill enemies and civilians from Afghanistan to Russia to South America to suburban Washington, d.c.

Call of Duty sold almost 5 million copies in the U.S. and UK—in its first 24 hours on the shelf. It made $310 million that day, the biggest debut in history—not the history of all video games, but of all forms of entertainment. (As a basis of comparison, the biggest movie opening ever was The Dark Knight, which raked in a paltry $158 million in three days.)

In related news, the actual U.S. military has a problem: a soft recruiting pool. As the Pentagon faces wars and rumors of wars everywhere from Iraq and Afghanistan to North Korea and Iran, the young people it has to draw upon are simply unfit for the job.

Three out of four target-age Americans (ages 17 to 24) fail to meet the baseline requirements in education and physical fitness to even go to boot camp, let alone reach a battlefield. They have disqualified themselves by dropping out of school, becoming single parents or committing crimes, or they are physically unfit, or have hearing, eyesight, or mental health problems, or asthma, or adhd.

These findings by Mission: Readiness, a group of 100 active and retired military commanders, in a report this month called “Ready, Willing and Unable to Serve,” expose a shameful weakness and loss of manliness in America and the West. In a dangerous world, this trend—prophesied in Scripture—will end in ruin.

The need for troops is forcing the armed services to increase incentives. They are offering higher pay, more comfortable accommodations, increased privacy, bonuses, easier entrance requirements. Thus, more potential combatants are joining because of what’s in it for them, rather than to answer any “call of duty.” Unsurprisingly, Mission: Readiness found that the economic downturn has boosted enlistment—after all, they’re offering a $22,000 bonus just to sign up. But as its report said, “[A] weak economy is no formula for a strong military. Once the economy begins to grow again, the challenge of finding enough high-quality recruits will return.”

At the same time, the military is dropping recruitment standards. For example, the Army’s goal is for 90 percent of its recruits to be high school graduates. But the Army gets a C- in achievement here: It has settled for 71 percent. Making matters worse, the Armed Forces Qualification Test, which determines basic math and reading skills, flunked 30 percent of those recruits who had a high school degree. “High quality” Army recruits—those who have a high school diploma and score anywhere in the top half of the military qualification test—are down from 56.2 percent in 2005 to 44.6 percent in 2008.

Once recruits are in, it’s a long road to video-game-style commando capability. All who don’t receive a waiver must stay clean and have or obtain a high school diploma or ged. But 20 percent of those with a diploma drop out of their first term of enlistment (usually three years); fully half of those with a ged drop out. In real life, these young people don’t have the discipline, they don’t have the intelligence, and they don’t have anything close to the physique.

Meanwhile, standards for recruits are dropping. Historically a place of intense pressure, physical exertion and mental hardening, boot camp is becoming more like summer camp.

Take the drill sergeant. At the end of 2005, these instructors were ordered to yell less and soften the “meet the standard or else” pressure; instead, they were told to mentor and help their struggling recruits. The Army also changed its policy so that recruits are evaluated solely according to written standards. Drill sergeant evaluations of their discipline and moral values no longer carry the force of expulsion. Making basic training a more comfortable place might seem benign, but it has life-and-death implications: If young Americans can’t complete tasks under screaming drill sergeants, what will they do under screaming bullets?

Privates at Basic Combat Training are given more sleep, personal time, food and dessert—and less stress. From 2002 to 2005, the amount of running that privates do there was cut more than 60 percent. Since more recruits haven’t experienced physical education or sports, the Army is trying to avoid injuries by replacing some of the running with stretching. Many soldiers have become overweight. In one training exercise, trainees were “ambushed” aboard a truck, and rather than jumping down five feet to the ground to engage the enemy, they waited 10 seconds until a step stool was brought around back for them.

The strong, robust, hardscrabble warrior is disappearing—into the video screen. One recruiter said that while candidates’ overall physical capabilities have atrophied, “They do have strong thumbs.”

Look around. Are boys and young men hiking trails, riding bikes, swimming rivers, climbing trees, exploring woods, jumping off sandpiles? Maybe they are controlling an on-screen character who is doing those things. Are they investigating wildlife, crafting things, reading high-quality books? Are they developing social skills, respect for authority, self-discipline, decisiveness? Are they taught the praiseworthy values of hard work and physical, mental and emotional strength?

Isaiah 3:1-3 foretell the present state of the United States military. This passage describes the modern nations of Israel as being stripped of the “mighty man,” the “man of war,” the “captain of fifty”—the strong, valiant champions. Read this verse, and see if it doesn’t sound familiar: “And I will break the pride of your power … And your strength shall be spent in vain ….” Ezekiel prophesied of a time when the trumpet of war would be blown, and none would go to the battle (Ezekiel 7:14). Not even America’s unmatched military spending can compensate for a society—and a soldiery—being swallowed up in soft selfishness, immorality and weakness.

The frightening corollaries of these prophecies are the Bible’s many horrifying pronouncements of America’s impending social collapse and subsequent defeat and captivity at the hands of far more forceful and violent enemy nations.

The poignant words of Josiah Gilbert Holland come forcibly to mind. God, give us men! A time like this demands / Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands; / Men whom the lust of office does not kill; / Men whom the spoils of office can not buy; / Men who possess opinions and a will; / Men who have honor; men who will not lie; / Men who can stand before a demagogue / And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking! / Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog / In public duty, and in private thinking; / For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds, / Their large professions and their little deeds, / Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps, / Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.