"A New Army Drawdown: This Time Is Far Worse " Topic

"Prevailing wisdom, which often isn't at all wise, holds the Army shouldn't face any problems downsizing because we've been down this road before. That's wrong. As one who served as the Army chief of staff during the post-Cold War drawdown, I can say, unequivocally, this time is far worse.

An era of escalating and accumulating strategic risks creates challenges for Army leaders at every level of command, and should concern every politician and every citizen. While our nation has faced complex security threats before, today's situation is much different. Any attempt to suggest our experiences were comparable could lead to serious misunderstandings.

The post-Cold War period was difficult as the demand for a ‘peace dividend' and related manpower reductions totaling about 40 percent of the Army, including active, Guard, Reserve and civilian personnel. This created a turbulent four years in which we tried to improve efficiency, prepare for a digitized battlefield, and fundamentally reduce our dependence on forward-based forces. The future was unclear. After many years of optimizing our capabilities against a well-defined threat, we reacted to a number of unanticipated contingencies—Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, the Balkans, Hurricane Andrew—while trying to transform our Army into a CONUS-based force capable of rapid deployment and decisive victory anywhere in the world…"
Full article here.
link

Amicalement
Armand

It's a very different army and officer corps than the one I joined in the mid-70's. All you needed to get a commission in my day was at least 2 years of ROTC and a degree. Now you need top grades when you graduate and even then that's no guarantee of a commission.

Draw-downs are nothing new, we've been cutting our army to the bone and being forced to build it back up since the 1780's.

Yup, the dirty little secret of cutting government funding is that waste is not what will get cut.

"Waste" is very much a subjective interpretation, when it comes to government spending.

Waste in government is easy.

Waste – something *I* don't personally have a need for.
No Waste – something *I* personally need.

*I* in this case is a voter (pick one)