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By year's end, troops will be unable to respond to crises, Pentagon says
Federal News Radio ^ | 4 Feb 13 | Jared Serbu

Posted on 02/08/2013 3:34:34 PM PST by SkyPilot

Every leader in the Pentagon has been warning for more than a year that if sequestration comes to pass the impact to the military will be severe. But the armed services' most senior officers now are telling Congress those impacts are not a distant prospect — they could be looking at a "hollowed-out" force within a matter of months after the cuts are triggered.

When the Defense Department directed the military services last month to start conserving funds, it was a good sign that the Pentagon now believes the long-threatened automatic budget cuts actually will take place. Ashton Carter, the deputy secretary of Defense, gave weight to that view last week when he acknowledged in an interview with Bloomberg that sequestration now appears "more likely than unlikely."

But the military's leadership is pressing hard to make sure Congress understands its point of view on what sequestration would actually mean should it take effect midway through a fiscal year in which a DoD budget still has not been enacted.

A letter to lawmakers, signed by each member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, opened with the admonition that "the readiness of our armed forces is at a tipping point. We are on the brink."

"We don't sign 28-star letters very often," Adm. James Winnefeld, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told an AFCEA convention in San Diego last week. "We did it because we are at serious risk of rapidly sliding into a hollow force."

(Excerpt) Read more at federalnewsradio.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: crisis; pentagon; sequestration
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A letter to lawmakers, signed by each member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
1 posted on 02/08/2013 3:34:40 PM PST by SkyPilot
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To: SkyPilot

Exactly what 0 wants.


2 posted on 02/08/2013 3:39:24 PM PST by Mmogamer (I refudiate the lamestream media, leftists and their prevaricutions.)
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To: SkyPilot

Start closing bases in Japan, South Korea, and Germany. Let’s get our priorities straight. Pull out the latest batallion from Africa. End funding of Libya and Egypt. Etc, etc...


3 posted on 02/08/2013 3:40:10 PM PST by andyk (I have sworn...eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.)
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To: SkyPilot

BS. They’re being asked to cut back to 2008 budget levels. I don’t think that’s going to destroy the military.


4 posted on 02/08/2013 3:40:24 PM PST by Timmy
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Obama’s priorities.


5 posted on 02/08/2013 3:40:33 PM PST by Gene Eric (The Palin Doctrine.)
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To: SkyPilot

The great leader of fiscal negligence is meeting his objectives as he destroys America. Step by step, piece by piece.

America has never sunk so low, nor allowed itself to be dominated by a marxo muslim..... and largely unwittingly.


6 posted on 02/08/2013 3:42:14 PM PST by himno hero (hadnuff)
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To: Mmogamer

Not just him, all the leftists!


7 posted on 02/08/2013 3:42:55 PM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: SkyPilot

Bull. Crap.


8 posted on 02/08/2013 3:44:09 PM PST by Vermont Lt (Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?)
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To: Mmogamer

Mmogamer: You’ve got it. Obama wants to reduce the US to a 2nd rate power, unable to respond to most crises, thus abandoning our allies to the Red Chinese, Russians, and Jihadists, like Morsi.

Where I come from, this is called “TREASON”.

PS: A corollary to this, if our allies are smart, is that they will go NUCLEAR re weapons. This includes Taiwan (I went to school with its’ president), the Philippines, South Korea and maybe Indonesia (Obama’s second home).

I would hope that Australia and possibly New Zealand (my second home in my dreams), would follow.

Only an unified nuclear force in the Pacific can contain Red China if the US copts out of its defense responsibilities because it no longer has the military equipment/force or political will to do it.


9 posted on 02/08/2013 3:45:17 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: Timmy

Fear mongering BS.


10 posted on 02/08/2013 3:55:14 PM PST by EEGator
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To: SkyPilot
The GOP agreed to this but were afraid to say so and they called it sequester.

Its apparent we need a two party system in this country....

11 posted on 02/08/2013 3:56:07 PM PST by montanajoe
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To: SkyPilot

Two Chilling Developments Suggest Asia May Be One Step Away From War

[sounds like we’re being set up all over the place]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2986629/posts


12 posted on 02/08/2013 3:56:27 PM PST by huldah1776
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To: SkyPilot

That would be a good time for China to attack Japan over the Senkaku Island dispute. The US wouldn’t be able to commit to its defense treaty with Japan.


13 posted on 02/08/2013 3:58:44 PM PST by teacherwoes ("I saw under the sun in the place of judgment wickedness, and in the place of justice iniquity.")
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To: SkyPilot

We already knew this. Look at the the non response in Libya and this weeks testimony.


14 posted on 02/08/2013 4:01:10 PM PST by sgtyork (The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage. Thucydides)
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To: SkyPilot
BS on the Obama butt boys (Joint Chiefs of Staff). I have a son and nephew on Active Duty. The DOD budget could be reduced by a third by deleting Queer and feminist crap, procurement fraud, firing useless civilians and reducing personnel pay down to an equivalent of the private sector.
15 posted on 02/08/2013 4:02:01 PM PST by texican01
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To: SkyPilot

I guess we’ll have to rely on UN troops then.

(Funny how that worked out, ain’t it? Almost as though it were planned that way.)


16 posted on 02/08/2013 4:02:01 PM PST by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
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To: SkyPilot

Fire some Generals and Admirals, and civilian DoD personnel, replace them with people who can do a better job managing the resources.

That will get the attention of the whiners.


17 posted on 02/08/2013 4:11:45 PM PST by Leto
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To: LearsFool

Where else do you want our troops to go and die?


18 posted on 02/08/2013 4:13:30 PM PST by EEGator
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To: SkyPilot

Apparently they couldn’t respond last September either.


19 posted on 02/08/2013 4:22:48 PM PST by csmusaret (I will give Obama credit for one thing- he is living proof that familiarity breeds contempt.)
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To: SkyPilot
then the boy's job will be half done... after that he's finish destroying the economy and our moral value system and it will be done
20 posted on 02/08/2013 4:25:22 PM PST by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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