I mean, what would happen if next fifteen largest military spenders in the world all ganged up on us and we weren't still spending more than all of them combined!? MADNESS!
I'm not particularly here of making some of the budget cuts in terms of pay tightening and reduced benefits to folks in the service. That's the wrong way to get the best and the brightest. But, then, I suspect this proposal will be DOA once the defense contractors and congresscritters with bases or shipyards in their districts get a look at it.
Reshared post from +Axel Haenssen
About time.
Pentagon Plans to Shrink Army to Pre-World War II Level
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s budget proposal would eliminate an entire class of Air Force attack jets and scale back the size of the Army not just to pre-9/11 levels, but to the force’s size in 1940.
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Yeah, the Pentagon has wanted to do this for a long time. It's contractor lobbying that keeps getting on the way.
Though spending cuts may not be good right now, regardless.
From a defense standpoint, I'm not concerned.
True, reducing spending overall is not going to be helpful economically. Ideally, you'd take money being spent on [weapon system X] and redirect it to something a a bit more cost-efficient and useful, like bridge repair, etc. Just cutting for the sake of cutting is more problematic — except that it averts cuts in other more critical areas.
I may actually faint.
But my next reaction is: There is no way in hell the military industry lobby is going to let this happen.
+Curt Thompson I think it will be very interesting to see how this plays out. I recall the brouhaha, in a less divisive time, about the post-Cold War base closures. This could be that in spades.
One thing it will do is make congressional reps take a public stand on such reductions, in specifics.
Maybe they should do it in stages. Start with refusing to buy the tanks and aircraft they don’t want but Congress keeps forcing on them.