Pentagon Plans to Shrink Army to Pre-World War II Level

NYT ^ | 23 Feb 2014 | THOM SHANKER and HELENE COOPER

[shove_it]

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel plans to shrink the United States Army to its smallest force since before the World War II buildup and eliminate an entire class of Air Force attack jets in a new spending proposal that officials describe as the first Pentagon budget to aggressively push the military off the war footing adopted after the terror attacks of 2001.

The proposal, described by several Pentagon officials on the condition of anonymity in advance of its release on Monday, takes into account the fiscal reality of government austerity and the political reality of a president who pledged to end two costly and exhausting land wars. A result, the officials argue, will be a military capable of defeating any adversary, but too small for protracted foreign occupations...

[Yorlik803]

cutting the military because the Taliban is not our enemy and the world is a safer place with a Small US Military.
Obama Civilian military needs the stuff anyways.

[Don Corleone]

Here they go again. Same mistakes repeated by the same people for the same reasons.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

But Obama's civilian army is on the march.

[Williams]

Here’s the real joke, the article begins with a statement that this is because of “government fiscal austerity”.

Seen any of that lately?

[theBuckwheat]

We must force our government to live within its means and that will require painful cuts and setting of priorities. The painful truth is that we have a military that is far bigger than we can afford. The implications of this will be a shift in world power dynamics when we reduce forces and other nation like China step in to fill the vacuum we leave.

[cincinnati65]

Russia will expand its airbase in Kyrgyzstan at the end of the year ahead of the shutdown of a US base in the country, a senior commander said Saturday.

The number of planes at Russia's Kant airbase in the country "will at least double by this December," Viktor Sevastyanov, a senior Russian air force commander, said at a ceremony marking the base's 10-year anniversary.

“We witnessed the massive amphibious and cross military region enterprise — Mission Action 2013,” USNI News quoted Capt. Fanell as saying. “[We] concluded that the PLA has been given the new task to be able to conduct a short sharp war to destroy Japanese forces in the East China Sea following with what can only be expected a seizure of the Senkakus or even a southern Ryukyu [islands] — as some of their academics say.”

So Russia and China ramp up.....we wind down. This is treasonous.

[Count of Monte Fisto]

A Third world country, with a Third world population with Third world jobs can’t afford a First world military.

[virgil]

How about shrinking the whole govt to pre WWII levels...?

[elpadre]

weakening our defense invites trouble

the greatest peacemaker in the world is the American soldier, sailor and marine.

[shove_it]

So Russia and China ramp up.....we wind down. This is treasonous.

Ditto that. National defense is JOB1 for the federal government. All the social engineering crap needs to be cut first and/or eliminated along with all its bureaucracy trappings.

[null and void]

Si vis pacem, para bellum.

The converse is also true.

[dfwgator]

They ultimately want to get rid of the volunteer army, which they know is full of mostly conservatives, and turn it into the largest government social program, and bring back the draft.

[I cannot think of a name]

“We must force our government to live within its means and that will require painful cuts and setting of priorities. The painful truth is that we have a military that is far bigger than we can afford.”

More to the point and more correct:

We must force our government to live within its means and that will require painful cuts and setting of priorities. The painful truth is that we have a WELFARE SYSTEM that is far bigger than we can afford.

Military spending is a pi$$hole in the sand compared to the true cost of welfare.

[mcshot]

I always thought the purpose of Gubmint is to protect its citizens. By pissing away billions/trillions on bloated social programs ripe with corruption our gubmint can no longer do its original task. So cut the military in a most volatile world while “alpha” agencies are expanding and buying billions of war bullets (prohibited in war). Somethings are totally horse shit as the military is the only thing we should be able to “afford”... Rant off

[BenLurkin]

“when we lost the next war, and an American boy, lying in the mud with a [Chinese] bayonet through his belly and a [Muslim] foot on his dying throat, spat out his last curse, I wanted the name not to be MacArthur, but Baraq Hussein.”

[LucianOfSamasota]

Or capitulation...

[armydawg505]

I continue to believe that Obama’s professed love of the military is a lie and he and his radicals would do anything to destroy it. The same people who rampaged in Chicago in 1968, who hated the military starting with Vietnam are now running the show. They will not miss a chance to leave their mark.

[drypowder]

well, since we have the obozo to lower the oceans and sooth world tensions.......................

[sport]

The Democrats need the money to buy votes. The sheep are getting more expensive. But on the bright side, from their [Democrats] point of view, this, and at the most two, election cycles, they can begin slaughtering the sheep, and begin recouping their money.