After watching the latest talking heads and their doom-and-gloom (not to mention cruising some of the right-wing websites) one is left with the impression that our current administration is hellbent for disarmament to pre World War I levels. To be sure, the announced drawdowns are certainly going to fuel some very lively debates once the presidental election starts rolling....its going to be impossible to to discuss the drawndown in calm, reasonable language, especially as the November Follies kick off.
So...whats the reality on the ground?
The defense needs of the US are, to say the least, unique. Our position in North America does not require a large land component. Sorry, but there it is. A Marine Corps of two-division equivalants plus support is more than adequate for its mission of rapid reaction/deployment.
The Army and its move to brigades as the primary combat unit is cutting out a lot of the waste. To be sure, I do not agree in anyway with the decision to become more "Medium" and please! Let's not even get me started on the Stryker Uber Weapons System! But it boils down that the Heavy configuration of the Army just isn't sustainable in this era of "Police Actions". Troops that can be rapidly transported and married up to pre-positioned equipment may be the most efficient use of our manpower.
We need a strong Navy because so much of our economic lifeblood depends on control of the seas. So the current plans to gut the Navy's air, surface, submarine and amphibious capabilities are, at best, the by-products of severe self-medication and at worst a demonstration of extremely piss-poor judgement.
As for the Air Farce, err Force....The needs to control the skies of our nation as well as the skies over our deployed troops should be paramount. They need to have the best, most advanced aircraft that we can field and in such numbers that they seize and hold control of the air anywhere in the world.
The Department of Defense is not the most efficient organization in the world, we need to streamline and prioritize what our defense budget is spent on. There should be no waste and there should be no cost-overruns!
Just a few thoughts.....
__________________
The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
|