Cutting Our Own Throat

Shades of Back to the Future. The obama administration has proposed cutting back the military to levels not seen since WWII.

The Pentagon said on Monday it would shrink the U.S. Army to pre-World War Two levels, eliminate the popular A-10 aircraft and reduce military benefits in order to meet 2015 spending caps...

Surprised? Keep in mind who the military preferred in the 2012 election. (The professional core of the U.S. military overwhelmingly favored Mitt Romney over President Obama...)

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, previewing the Pentagon's ideas on how to adapt to government belt-tightening, said the defense budget due out next week would be the first to look beyond 13 years of conflict, shifting away from long-term ground wars like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Okay, I get that. But it seems like there would be a significnat built-in 'peace dividend' that would enable cutting away fat without slicing into muscle.

Hagel said the Pentagon plans to reduce the size of the Army to between 440,000 and 450,000 soldiers. The Army is currently about 520,000 soldiers and had been planning to draw down to about 490,000 in the coming year.

A reduction to 450,000 would be the Army's smallest size since 1940, before the United States entered World War Two...

The proposed budget also continues its assault on pay and benefits.

Hagel said the department would seek a 1 percent raise in pay for military personnel but would slow the growth of tax-free housing allowances, reduce the annual subsidy for military commissaries and reform the TRICARE health insurance program for military family members and retirees.

Hagel also said the Pentagon would eliminate the Air Force fleet of A-10 "Warthog" close air support planes, which are much beloved by ground troops, in order to ensure continued funding of the new long-range bomber, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and a new aerial refueling tanker.

Keep the Warthog. Get rid of that flying Swiss army knife, the F-35. That'll save tens of billions right there.

Hagel failed to point out that the budget cuts will inevitably result in an increased number of dead soldiers and Marines in future conflicts.

When the Obama Administration sends its proposed 2015 defense budget to Congress on March 4, two high-profile armored vehicle programs will be missing in action.  A new Amphibious Combat Vehicle to get marines safely from ship to shore in future conflicts has been indefinitely delayed.  And a new Army Ground Combat Vehicle designed to provide better battlefield mobility and protection for a nine-soldier rifle squad has also been shelved.  Both moves make it more likely that large numbers of U.S. ground forces will die in future wars.

...In the case of the Marine Corps, a badly needed replacement of its Vietnam-era amphibious assault vehicle has been deferred indefinitely, even though the existing vehicle is too slow and lightly armored to afford adequate protection against well-armed defenders ashore...

In the case of the Army, a replacement of its Reagan-era Bradley troop carrier called the Ground Combat Vehicle has been killed despite the fact that Army leaders complained during the Iraq war about the inadequate protection the Bradley provided to soldiers it was transporting...

These are not the only modernization programs being impacted by budget cuts.  The Army has delayed or canceled a hundred technology efforts, including its next-generation air defense system, a planned reconnaissance helicopter, and elements of its future battlefield network.  But terminating the one new armored vehicle conceived to correct operational deficiencies noted in existing vehicles during recent conflicts has especially worrisome implications for the fate of ground forces in future wars.

So does killing an amphibious vehicle that would have carried the first wave of U.S. ground forces into future littoral crises.  With the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf and other hot spots moving offshore, the Marines are reverting to their traditional emphasis on forcible entry and amphibious warfare ... at some point Marines will still have to crash through the surf to seize hostile shores, and the current amphibious vehicle simply doesn’t look well-suited to a world in which enemies have precision-guided munitions...

So instead of protecting our troops and keeping the faith with our veterans, the obama administration is stabbing them in the back.

Funny, but I don't see similar cuts in 'entitlement' programs. Gotta give the masses their free obamaphones, obamacare, food stamps, welfare checks, and on and on and on...