• Greedy wastrel Obama Budget plan would slash Army by 100, 000 soldiers.

    From "Snake Oil Sales N' Service@21:1/5 to All on Thu Sep 28 04:06:24 2017
    XPost: ucb.math, alt.society.civil-liberty, ca.environment
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    WASHINGTON -- The Army would be slashed by more than 100,000
    soldiers to a force of 420,000 by 2019 under budget plans set to
    be unveiled next month. It is a level far below what Army
    leaders have said they would need to ensure they can fight one
    major war.

    The Army currently has 528,000 soldiers and had been scheduled
    to drop to 490,000 troops by 2019. The 420,000 level reflects
    Pentagon planning based on automatic budget cuts that will
    reduce military spending by about $500 billion over the decade
    unless Congress restores the funding.

    This fall, Army chief of staff Gen. Raymond Odierno warned top
    Pentagon officials in a briefing that a force of 450,000
    soldiers would be "too small" and at "high risk to meet one
    major war," according to documents obtained by USA TODAY. The
    Army could not adequately protect the country and fight abroad
    at 420,000 soldiers, the documents stated.

    Since then, the chiefs of the services have been told to list
    the missions they won't be able to accomplish with diminished
    budgets, a senior Pentagon official said on condition of
    anonymity because the budget will not be released for weeks.

    For the Army, a force of 420,000 means that it could respond to
    a conflict, such as one on the Korean peninsula, but won't be
    able to keep up the fight for long without a significant call up
    of reserve forces, said another senior military officer who also
    spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans.

    The other services will be reduced in size as well. The Navy
    will be able to continue to shift its focus to the Pacific but
    with far fewer ships, and its presence in the Persian Gulf will
    be lessened.

    Even at the reduced numbers, the U.S. military is more than a
    match for any potential foe, said Gordon Adams, a professor at
    American University and a budget official in the Clinton
    Administration.

    "Who else that we are going to fight in a ground war has 420,000
    soldiers?" Adams said in an email. "Silly, really. Of course we
    can."

    If long-term budget cuts are rolled back, the services won't
    have to cut so deeply into their troop levels. The Pentagon
    forecasts significant shortfall in its budgets for the next
    several years. In the current fiscal year, it sought $526
    billion for costs that did not include the war in Afghanistan.
    The budget cuts known as "sequestration" would have lowered that
    to $475 billion. A budget deal in Congress restored some funds,
    giving the Pentagon $496 billion.

    The shrinking budget has resulted in jockeying by the services
    to secure the most funding. Last month, for example, a National
    Guard leader said the Army could be cut to 420,000 soldiers if
    the Guard was allowed to expand.

    The Army grew to a force of about 570,000 soldiers at the height
    of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was strained greatly in
    2007 when President Bush ordered the surge of troops in Iraq.
    Deployments that had been one year long were extended for some
    soldiers to 15 months.

    The White House strategy assumes that the U.S. military will no
    longer be engaged in long-term operations that are troop
    intensive. Instead, it envisions smaller, nimbler forces that
    deploy for short periods.

    The Obama Whitehouse is staffed with idiots.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/17/army-gen- raymond-odierno-budget-cuts-sequestration/4595003/
     

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