The current administration has already moved to drastically cut military personnel quotas over the next 10 years.
Not only that, but the military budget was reduced by 27 million dollars in 2013 alone.
While many may applaud the military downsizing, a few may be asking what about the long range future? What signals (? or invitations) are we sending to Putnan?
Yesterday, the Army?s top military officer Odierno is quoted as saying that the President?s budget cuts will ?make it difficult to execute the president?s national defense strategy.?
He went on to say, ?I doubt that we could even execute one prolonged, multi-phase operation that is extended over a period of time.?
Not only that, but Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said that the budget cuts have caused a year?s delay in a decision on to refuel or decommission one of its primary aircraft carriers.
“Reducing the Army to its smallest size since World War II is the worst possible approach to maintain our national security,” Caroline Delleney, a spokeswoman for Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., chairman of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, said in a statement.
But Is Anyone Keeping Score?
Russia orders for military equipment will increase by 25 percent next year in 2014, according to Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov. Armed services procurement was expected to reach 1.7 trillion rubles ($52 billion) in 2014, up from the 1.35 trillion rubles allocated for state defense contracts this year.
And then there?s China who increased its military budget for 2014 to almost $132 billion, a 12.2 percent rise over 2013. The rapid growth in defense spending is another sign of the China?s goal of becoming a dominant military presence in the Pacific.
All to say, the United States military budget cuts are being vibrated throughout the military and perhaps the world.
Leaving many asking will the United States military be the dominate and respected force that it once was only years ago? Will the US military maintain adequate manpower and budgetary solvency to fight determined powers who seek to invade on behalf of greed?
Or worst, are Americans more focused on getting free phones or free insurance or free whatever it takes for a politician to get elected? All at the ultimate cost of losing our freedom. Such freedom that may have been long taken for granted. I hope not. But if we have…