But the next war we fight is not going to be a massive mobilization of troops going to another country to establish beachheads, capture territory, etc. The next war we fight is going to see ground troops, but it's going to be a small number of elite, well-trained ground troops going in and getting a job done. Some reservists will be called up, of course, as reservists are primarily in support roles.
No one knows how the next war is going to be fought or who will invade and us and by what means. We had one launched this month on our soil. We could not respond in time. We had a plane brought down by China we could not respond in time. Think about it some of our biggest military targets do not so much as have a fighter jet in the whole state. Why? Cutbacks is why. I'm glad to know that I live less than 20 miles from such and only have a refueling squadron near by to protect it. September 11 showed us our military needs help that is can not cover our own soil. Closing more bases will not solve that problem. But giving the base another squadron, another couple of combat units, or even traing more NG's makes a lot more sense than saying nope can't happen here we got to close them down.