Oh and I forgot to add that the total active duty military personnel - all branches - in 2002 was 1.413 million and in 2012 1.468 million an increase of 3.8%, so a 55% increase in budget and a 3.8 percent increase in personnel
Tell me again how this works out to reducing the military capability due to budgetary constraints
Apparently you didn’t notice that between 2002 and 2012 we have been fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That soldiers have been wounded and killed. The Cold War Army was disbanded in the 1990s thus an increase of personnel was needed because of what happened on Sep 11, 2001. And now that Iraq is over and Afghanistan is ending, the cuts to military manpower are beginning to happen. The Army is on its way DOWN to a force level it has not had since before the Korean War.
The same site you reference, Heritage, gives more data that demonstrates that Sequestration is gutting the military. Moreover, the percent increase you cite lumps the cost of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that included OCO funding that lumped that into the general Defense budget.
Even if we zeroed out Defense spending altogehter, we are screwed financially because of Entitlement spending (which is not being addressed by either party because they are cowards).
We were attacked after 911 - did you forget that? Yet, the percentage of our military spending (especially in % of GDP) was a historically low increase for war. We did this on the cheap by historial comparisons, and very few Americans paid the price of these wars in terms of blood, sweat, and sacrifice.
Less than 1% of Amerians serve in the military. Less than 7% have every served - yet is the military budget that is being used as an ATM machine for this nation.
The simple fact is that the military is 17% of the Federal budget, and must "pay for" 50% of all Sequestration cuts.
Furthermore, Sequestration does NOTHING to deal with our exploding Entitlements, which are the real cause of our debt and deficits. Neither party wants to deal with Entitlements, yet they are breaking the back of this nation and sapping our national will.
