Posted on 08/03/2015 8:33:51 AM PDT by huldah1776
Last month, Gen. Ray Odierno, outgoing Army chief of staff, and Gen. Mark Milley, his successor, testified to the difficulties faced by the Army. I’d like to make the same points by telling a story.
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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 Ash 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 stripes.com ...
The Guys in Iraq and Afghanistan were all volunteer. The best of the best. Petraeus' COIN strategy failed to cover their backs and now, now their training is all but non-existent. Everyone was screaming about training on US soil. Half of my son's unit's training was cut while in Oki. The point of the spear is being blunted. Makes me so dang mad.
The US is still spending $600+ billion per year on the military. Where the hell is this money going?
Blunted???
The point of the spear has a rainbow puffball on it.
Muslim outreach and sensitivity training.
I recall a reference to there being just 30,000 “trigger pullers” in the US military. Can anyone insightfully elaborate on that, and how the latest cuts are impacting it? Weapons systems & infrastructure are of course vital, but it all comes to “boots on the ground” ... and I doubt how many trigger-ready “boots” we’ve got to put on the ground.
Exactly!!!!!
ALL of our government is ignoring our Constitution and perverting the way our government was created to operate.
I so wish they’d pay our soldiers at least a quarter of what our politicians make and pay the politicians their beloved $15 an hour. Too bad our founders didn’t frame the pay rates that way.
Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011 with bipartisan support, and signed into law by Obama... which cut over $400 billion from projected defense spending over ten years. The act also led to sequestration, which slashes an additional $495 billion from the defense budget, for an overall total of almost $1 trillion in cuts.
Civilan attachés and procurement. There’s a ton of money in being on the committee that investigates the need to change BDUs.
We could’ve probably invaded IS for the cash spent trying to figure out what uniform looks best.
. . . and creating job opportunities for the homo set.
The deal was, conservatives would agree to military cuts while the libs would agree to cuts in govt social spending. The idea was it was a worst case scenario. Leadership collapsed though and we’re stuck with the military cuts and the Democrats got their obscene spending on the non-military side somewhat restored.
Boehner screwed us all.
600B s not keeping up with inflation.
Heard the DOD has NEVER been audited. Where is the money going, indeed? Son had to have boots. $200 for the good ones. I bet a lot of money is lining the pockets of people we could not call patriots.
Not yet. The LGBT are still in the minute minority and definitely not in the spear. They can’t do the PT so hey, lower the standards so miss america can pass, then even I could get in (if they raise the age standard).
It’s breaking for the third time in our lives. That’s probably true. But it broke before WWI, II, and Korea. And we came back and won.
In order to maintain a full combat ready army is expensive, and not really a good plan.
The Army would not be significantly involved with ISIS. One airborne division could take care of them. The Army would not be involved with China. That will be a Navy and AF war.
The only place that “might” need large amounts of troops is Europe. And Putin would light the place up if we got involved in any meaningful way.
So, aside from, “that’s the way it’s been’, where do we need this huge, combat ready army?
Congress passed the sequester. Obama is just doing what the republicans told him to do.
The study was about WWII.
The Obama administration just announced a 40,000 reduction in the Army’s ranks.
Yet we’re bringing million of refugees and illegals to join our welfare roles. If we stop that, we can easily afford the 40,000 in our military.
But that’s not the plan of the muzlim in chief. He wants to fundamentally destroy the United States.
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