{"id":41212,"date":"2014-02-26T11:36:06","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T18:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/26\/a-bad-size-comparison-in-the-military-spending-cut-proposal.html"},"modified":"2014-02-26T11:36:06","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T18:36:06","slug":"a-bad-size-comparison-in-the-military-spending-cut-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/26\/a-bad-size-comparison-in-the-military-spending-cut-proposal.html","title":{"rendered":"A bad size comparison in the military spending cut proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"
The original AP story covering the proposed reduction in the active duty military said the result would be "the smallest number since 1940 when the nation was gearing up to enter World War II." This got picked up on as some sort of OMG INSANE WEAKNESS LIKE WE HAD BEFORE WW II WHEN WE WERE ATTACKED!! thing.<\/p>\n

The problem is, the whole paragraph makes it clear that 1940 number was a mid-mobilization figure, not where the US was during the heyday\u00a0of Isolationism.<\/p>\n

'The active-duty Army would shrink from today's 522,000 soldiers to between 440,000 and 450,000 \u2014 the smallest number since 1940 when the nation was gearing up to enter World War II. The Army currently is scheduled to be reduced to 490,000. The Army's post-World War II low was 480,000 in 2001, according to figures provided by the service. In 1940 the Army had just 267,000 active-duty members, but that number surged to 1.46 million the following year as America prepared for war in Europe and the Pacific.'<\/i><\/p>\n

Folks looking to criticize the plan, though, have latched on to that 1940 number to make it all sound like Neville Chamberlain is at the helm.<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +The Wire<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The reduction in the size of the military overall still maintains a force that's far larger than we had shortly …\ufeff<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

A Visualization of the Proposed Military Cuts That Terrify Dick Cheney<\/a>
\n Yes, Chuck Hagel is proposing reductions in the size of the United States military. But the terrifying spectre of an Army at “pre-World War II levels” pretty dramatically oversells the case, as we can demonstrate.\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The original AP story covering the proposed reduction in the active duty military said the result would be "the smallest number since 1940 when the nation was gearing up to enter World War II." This got picked up on as some sort of OMG INSANE WEAKNESS LIKE WE HAD BEFORE WW II WHEN WE WERE … Continue reading “A bad size comparison in the military spending cut proposal”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41178,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/24\/reducing-the-us-military-budget-inconceivable.html","url_meta":{"origin":41212,"position":0},"title":"Reducing the US military budget? Inconceivable!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 24-Feb-14 9:58am","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27316,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/03\/new-us-genealogy-treasure-trove-opens-up.html","url_meta":{"origin":41212,"position":1},"title":"New US genealogy treasure trove opens up","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 3-Apr-12 3:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Coolness!Gee, remember when the Census was seen as a patriotic duty, not some sort of Big Gubbiment Plot? Special bonus: future genealogists will thank you!(Actually makes me wonder what Mitt Romney's stand on the census is, given his playing to the conservative right while still being a Mormon, with their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2908,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/09\/05\/chicken_hawks.html","url_meta":{"origin":41212,"position":2},"title":"Chicken Hawks","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 5-Sep-02 12:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"There's been a growing thread of discussion of late in the national dialog to the effect that we shouldn't go to war in Iraq because the military is against it....","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9771,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/06\/dishonorable_enlistings.html","url_meta":{"origin":41212,"position":3},"title":"Dishonorable Enlistings","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 6-Nov-06 9:24am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's one thing to entice folks to sign up for the military based on appeals to patriotism and honor. Some folks have a problem with that; I don't. It's another...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44055,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/01\/grace-hopper-saaaaalute.html","url_meta":{"origin":41212,"position":4},"title":"Grace Hopper: Saaaaalute!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 1-Aug-14 5:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A hell of a woman.Reshared post from +Brad AckerToday in History: Grace Hopper recalled to active duty to head COBOL programming effortOn August 1, 1967 \u2014 47 years ago today \u2014 Grace Murray Hopper, at age 61, was recalled by the U.S. Navy to help standardize the programming language COBOL\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Grace_Hopper.jpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10403,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/01\/26\/war_comparisons.html","url_meta":{"origin":41212,"position":5},"title":"War comparisons","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 26-Jan-07 12:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Like the vast majority of Americans, I concur that the Iraq War has been horribly bumbled in its execution. But there's plenty of basis for criticizing the war effort without...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}