Posted on 03/05/2014 3:32:19 PM PST by SkyPilot
The nation’s top military commander painted a dark picture Tuesday of future U.S. defense capabilities clouded by shrinking Pentagon budgets and adversaries’ technological advances that he said would erode American battlefield superiority.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided his sobering views as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review, a congressionally mandated evaluation of U.S. military strength issued every four years.
Dempsey predicted that it would become increasingly difficult to balance the competing demands of protecting allies abroad, securing Americans at home and deterring future wars.
“The smaller and less capable military outlined in the QDR makes meeting these obligations more difficult,” he said. “Most of our platforms and equipment will be older, and our advantages in some domains will have eroded. Our loss of depth across the force could reduce our ability to intimidate opponents from escalating conflicts.”
Dempsey added: “Moreover, many of our most capable allies will lose key capabilities. The situation will be exacerbated given our current readiness concerns, which will worsen over the next three or four years.”
Dempsey’s perspective was more pessimistic than that of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
“As we move off the longest continuous war footing in our nation’s history, this QDR explains how we will adapt, reshape and rebalance our military for the challenges and opportunities of the future,” Hagel said in a statement.
Dempsey issued his warnings as President Barack Obama sent Congress a 2015 budget for the entire government on Tuesday that provides the Pentagon just over $600 billion.
That’s $13 billion less than current funding, but $26 billion more than provided in a budget deal that Congress approved in December by large bipartisan majorities.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
We need a new top general.
And I as well my brother/sister.
The first blood moon is April 15th I believe, right at the start of Passover.
Christ told us to watch for the signs of the times. Come, Lord Jesus.
bkmk
“I think you need to get better informed about the Monroe Doctrine.”
You think it doesn’t apply to the conversation? Why not?
As to the DOS Mission statement, there is nothing in the Constitution that supports that nonsense as stated.
Granted the Monroe Doctrine suffers from the same - but at least it’s more relevant in terms of proximity to the USA.
So just how expensive is it to lose a war and become a nation of slaves? I fear we are about to find out. God help us!
The Monroe Doctrine drew parameters for an American sphere of influence and served as the justification for the kinds of interventions you seem to disapprove of. We have also had the Truman Doctrine, which helped contain the Soviet Union and communism as well as rebuild war torn Europe. The Bush doctrine embraced preemption as part of the effort to address non-state actor terrorism.
The is no Obama doctrine that puts some coherence to our foreign policy.
As to the DOS Mission statement, there is nothing in the Constitution that supports that nonsense as stated.
Nonsense? We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Do you think we have a foreign policy that does not provide for the common defense, promote the General Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty for ourselves and our Posterity? It is in our national interests to have a world where "all human beings deserve lives of dignity and the opportunity to achieve their aspirations. We will promote freedom of speech, conscience, and religion, the rule of law, and economic freedom."
The US has global strategic interests. It can't go into a cocoon and hope that it can remain unaffected by international events.
“The US has global strategic interests. It can’t go into a cocoon and hope that it can remain unaffected by international events. “
Please. I’m not arguing against this. However, it matters not one iota to America’s interests whether an Iraqi, for instance, has the right to vote or not. The idea that it did has already been proven wrong.
“The Monroe Doctrine drew parameters for an American sphere of influence and served as the justification for the kinds of interventions you seem to disapprove of.”
A sphere of influence within our geographic proximity. While I disapprove of it in general, I’d much rather have spent ten years and a Trillion dollars making Mexico a better and prosperous neighbor than Iraq and Afghanistan for instance - if we were going to do it anyway. As it is we pissed away treasure and blood and we’ll soon be back where we started in both countries.
Your quote from the Constitution should at least be discussed and put to a vote/amendment before we put forth the tortured interpretation to do the things we’ve done overseas. They are not words to justify a bigger defense budget over those other God-given items to be found in the Constitution.
“It is in our national interests to have a world where “all human beings deserve lives of dignity and the opportunity to achieve their aspirations.”
Bullshit. If our government strived to do this for Americans - like they are obligated to do under the Constitution, I’d be a bit more interested in the rest of the world. The fact is the rest of the world is NOT America. Our Constitution does not apply to them and it’s insanity to try to twist it so that “everyone gets the American Dream”.
THAT is balderdash.
That is not why we went into Iraq. Here is why we went into Iraq
Saddam Hussein invaded Iran and Kuwait. He used WMD against Iran and his own people. He was a destabilizing influence in the region--a region extremely important for US interests. AQ made Iraq the main front in its war against us.
However bad things may seem in Iraq today, they are far less threatening to our interests today than they were before we went into the country.
I’d much rather have spent ten years and a Trillion dollars making Mexico a better and prosperous neighbor than Iraq and Afghanistan for instance - if we were going to do it anyway.
We went into Afghanistan to attack the people who committed the horror of 9/11, the attacks against our embassies in East Africa, the bombing of the USS Cole, etc. The reasons why we went into Iraq are in the link provided above.
Your quote from the Constitution should at least be discussed and put to a vote/amendment before we put forth the tortured interpretation to do the things we’ve done overseas.
Congress approved our entry into Iraq and Afghanistan and the funding of operations. Libya is another matter.
Bullshit. If our government strived to do this for Americans - like they are obligated to do under the Constitution, I’d be a bit more interested in the rest of the world. The fact is the rest of the world is NOT America. Our Constitution does not apply to them and it’s insanity to try to twist it so that “everyone gets the American Dream”.
What country does a better job for its citizens re liberty, justice, and individual liberties? Why are people risking life and limb to get here from all over the world?
I have not said that the Constitution applies to the world, but the universal values it espouses should be adopted by the rest of world. If that were the case, it would be a much safer world for them and us.
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If push came to shove, you feel confident zerO would defend our ”freedom?” And we lost most of our freedom in 1933 when FDR stole our real money, gold & took US off the gold standard. That was the beginning of the end.
“Otherwise none of the stuff we discuss at this site even matters if we cannot maintain our freedom.”
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How true, it is amazing how some people still seem to think of this country as being “the last bastion of freedom”. In truth we have NO REAL FREEDOM left in this country. Anyone who imagines otherwise needs to look around and smell the coffee.
One word answer: Benghazi
ONLY if politically advantageous or necessary would Obama lift a finger to protect & defend Americans or American interests.
It sure seems that way; however, freedom is not something given by government; regardless, government may be tasked with securing & protecting it. The 2nd amendment sums up well the concept. Freedom requires bearing arms in spite of a government that says no.
IMHO when and if the people come to the conclusion (Americans are quite patient) that the Constitution is irrelevant, IOW that government is irrelevant, then rather than comply with a tyrant there are many who will fall back to the default of the Declaration of Independence.
Shhhhhh!
How can we ever possibly hope to keep up with the Chinese and the Russians with our military in such a deplorable state!
“Our personnel costs are inflated vis a vis either China or Russia.:
Higher when compared side-by-side. . .but do we want to lower to their level?
“Our procurement system is corrupt and extremely inefficient, particularly for new weapons.”
Please explain.
They can get and keep similarly talented people for much less money, so they can have more of them, so they get more for their $. So even if their annual military budget is 1/3 or 1/4 of ours, it buys them as much or nearly as much. Which makes them more dangerous than a simple $ comparison would lead on to think.
As for the US procurement mess - there have been many studies on this - we waste between 1/2 to 2/3 of our procurement funds on non-productive paper pushing. Between having way too many office jockeys, regulations, delays, and etc.
I dont know whether the Chinese and Russians are as inefficient as we are, but they could hardly be worse.
Now there's one RAT bastard traitor that I would love to give a really good hard boot in the ass....he is an 0dumb0 stooge through & through. I would love to ask him, during Benghazi when he was in the room with 0dumb0, Hillary, Panetta & Biden, why in the world did Dempsey sit there like a bump on a log and never once did Dempsey bring up the subject or recommend going in with reinforcements to help the 4 trapped Americans. What a RAT bastard traitor he is!
I doubt that very much! In what way? Dempsey is a RAT bastard traitor through & through, and a complete stooge for 0dumb0shit!
As the media has published in literally hundreds of stories on this subject, between 2012 - 2013, there was a reported increase in the number of sexual assaults in the military.
What was seldom reported (in fact only a few media outlets even bothered) was that most sexual assault victims in the military are probably men, and they are much, much, much less likely to report the assaults, while females are highly encouraged to come forward.
Victims of sex assaults in military are mostly men
Further downplayed, to an INCREDIBLE degree, was the rampant increase in male-to-male sexual assaults that had skyrocketed since Don't Ask Don't Tell had been repealed.
Moreover, while discovering that women are much more likely to report instances of assault, the military began an all out effort in 2011 and 2012 to ENCOURAGE women to report sexual assault. And then, the White House, Congress, and the medial repeated false data that said women were LESS likely to report sexual assault crimes, when the opposite was true.
To make matters even more insane, the military refused to release data and specifics of FALSE reporting by women, claiming it would "discourage women from reporting future crimes."
To hear that a high ranking general, who had on his plate Sequestration, falling readiness, combat deaths, and whole other host of problems - having to spend "90%" of his time dealing with Secretary Hagel's homework projects on sexual assault is a travesty.
I was in church last week, and an elder led a prayer where he thanked God that we were free to worship Him in that place.
I thought about that, and realized that:
1. In the American workplace, very few of us can worship or even acknowledge Him
2. God is banned from the schools, colleges, and universities
3. Judges are ruling that Christians must be slaves to homosexuals who demand good and services, even if that requires Christians to violate their core beliefs
4. Health care under ObamaCare now mandates paying for someone else's abortion and birth control, even if you are a single Christian male
5. Members of the military have been persecuted for their Christian beliefs (i.e. SMSgt Monk)
Airman Claiming Religious Discrimination Mirandized, May Face Court Martial
I truly believe that we are very soon at the point where pastors will soon be hauled off to jail for preaching God's truth.
But through persecution, the light of Christ always shines the brighter. It has been that way throughout history. This nation was founded upon the Bible and God. We have more than lost our way, we have the accelerator floored as the car accelerates towards the gates of Hell.
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