Posted on 08/18/2015 10:25:56 AM PDT by NRx
...Sadly, the Army that stayed cohesive in Iraq and Afghanistan even after losing 5,000 dead is now being broken again by an ungrateful, ahistorical and strategically tone-deaf leadership in Washington.
The Obama administration just announced a 40,000 reduction in the Army’s ranks. But the numbers don’t begin to tell the tale. Soldiers stay in the Army because they love to go into the field and train; Defense Secretary Ashton Carter recently said that the Army will not have enough money for most soldiers to train above the squad level this year. Soldiers need to fight with new weapons; in the past four years, the Army has canceled 20 major programs, postponed 125 and restructured 124. The Army will not replace its Reagan-era tanks, infantry carriers, artillery and aircraft for at least a generation. Soldiers stay in the ranks because they serve in a unit ready for combat; fewer than a third of the Army’s combat brigades are combat ready. And this initial 40,000 soldier reduction is just a start. Most estimates from Congress anticipate that without lifting the budget sequestration that is driving this across-the-board decline, another 40,000 troops will be gone in about two years.
But it’s soldiers who tell the story. After 13 years of war, young leaders are voting with their feet again. As sergeants and young officers depart, the institution is breaking for a third time in my lifetime. The personal tragedies that attended the collapse of a soldier’s spirit in past wars are with us again. Suicide, family abuse, alcohol and drug abuse are becoming increasingly more common.
(Excerpt) Read more at sandiegouniontribune.com ...
Applying for benefits these days requires people to be online. I’ve heard government-funded nonprofit groups award each arriving family with a laptop with a browser set up with the links to the appropriate websites — all in Spanish, of course. That way, they all get onto welfare and Obamacare more easily.
They also get a free luxury resort to stay in until they get settled: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/07/obama-to-pay-illegal-aliens-give-all-you-can-eat-meals-free-cable-tv-lawyers-medical-dental/
My 15 yo son is interested in Marines NROTC.
Now I’m wondering if there will be enough spots open
What was that stupid bumper sticker?
It will be a great day when school shave all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber?
http://www.northernsun.com/Bake-Sale-Poster-(4007N).html
They are getting close.
All because of Sequestration, which Obama first floated and Bonehead Boehner agreed to, so now the Republicans are blamed for it, which means at least half the GOP caucus doesn’t even want to bring the subject up.
Boehner is such a feckless, useless limp “leader.”
but we have enough money to advertise to invaders south of our border about the freebies they will be given once they invade us and they get all those freebies at the expense of legal Americans and ..................the military.
Aren’t officers being removed if they don’t actively condone homosexuality?
Of course, our leaders say that global warming is our number one security concern.
Split the difference: Mr. Chelsey (wo)Manning?
</EXTREME sarc!>
Works for me
+10
What would you have the military do?
It’s not about “condoning” anything, it’s more like, treating everyone with fairness, dignity and respect. That said, it’s a lot harder than you would think to do that.
Unfortunately, that video describes Canada about 20 years ago. It has become MUCH worse here, now. As a WASP, whose anscestors chose King George rather than General George in that little spat that began in 1776, my family are descendents of United Empire Loyalists, who settled this country (Canada) after having been tossed out after the Treaty of Paris. Now, I’m a second class citizen. O’Venal is trying to do that in the States.
Oh yeah?
Well you’re a racist!
/sarc(??????????)
Ping
Hey, more excellent recruits for citizen militias.
By what authority? He can recommend or request it but Congress is the only one who sets End Troop Strengths not POTUS.
We haven’t seen a pro-military take care of the troops POTUS since Reagan left office. Nor such as a Secretary of Defense either for that matter.
I fear that most of those who leave will be the best of the troops. More and more veteran officers are becoming discouraged by what’s happening to it.
It may take decades for the nation to recover from the Obama Presidency, even if Republicans do win the White House.
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