Korean Job Discussion Forums

[World Traveler]

WASHINGTON — With the U.S. out of Iraq and leaving Afghanistan, the Pentagon wants to shrink the Army to its smallest size since before World War II.

The plan to cut the service from 522,000 to fewer than 450,000 active-duty troops is the most dramatic of a series of cuts Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel proposed Monday.

Hagel outlined plans set to be included next week in President Obama’s 2015 budget proposal as the administration works to squeeze defense funding to meet tight spending caps.

“We have to face the realities of our time,” Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said Monday. “We must be pragmatic.”

The reduced force reflects the Army’s pullback from ground operations requiring large troop numbers.

The U.S. doesn’t need a big army unless it is “expecting to be fighting large land wars," said Chris Preble, a defense analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pentagon-cuts-shrink-army-smallest-size-wwii-article-1.1700568

[radcon]

"The US Army is kind of over the M-1 Abrams tank. At more than $7 million a pop, there's not much call for the heavy gas-guzzlers on modern battlefields. But some of the most conservative self-styled deficit hawks on Capitol Hill refuse to do away with their treaded gravy train.

The military has said thanks but no thanks to more tanks; their current fleet is large and new, and in search of a mission, as they're more useful for open-field battles with the Soviet army than for distributing goodwill to Afghan villages. Yet Congress has appropriated $436 million to keep production rolling, NPR reports:"

http://gawker.com/deficit-fighting-congress-will-spend-millions-on-unwant-484605864

[World Traveler]

Radcon, your link is a year old. I posted mine when it was two minutes old. (Mine is the correct/relevant/current one.)

[radcon]

[World Traveler]

This is the breaking news:

"For the first time in 13 years we will be presenting a budget to the Congress of the United States that's not a war-footing budget," Hagel said in response to reporters' questions. "That's a defining budget because it starts to reset and reshape."

[radcon]

"The military of the United States is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world, with 164,227 of its active-duty personnel serving outside the United States and its territories and an additional 118,966 deployed in various contingency operations."

Let's hope these proposed budget cuts address this issue.

[World Traveler]

[radcon]

Why are you posting about US military reductions like you think it's a positive thing? You have repeatedly said that the US military is a great force for goodness on earth. So wouldn't more soldiers and more weapons that a larger budget brings mean much more goodness for the world courtesy of the US military?

[World Traveler]

The U.S. military is already huge and powerful, so much so that it could be reduced greatly and still maintain its standing as the world's sole undisputed superpower. No one else comes even close.

[young_clinton]

How many wars at one time can the US fight? I use to know. Maybe its time to turn our protective backs on our ungrateful critics.

A side note that might interest some of you. The Taliban (freedom fighters to some of you) in Pakistan says it will refuse anything less than Sharia law in Pakistan. They actually just beheaded 20 or so Pakistani policeman.

[Steelrails]

[Hokie21]

[Died By Bear]

The last guy in this trailer says "America knows war. They are war masters". Good film, watched it last week. The old man interview was powerful, but they don't show it in this trailer. Good stuff.

http://dirtywars.org/trailer

[Hokie21]

[Steelrails]