Sam and I see that Thursday’s Wall Street Journal (aka WSJ) carried an article titled “Branches of Military Battle Over Shrinking War Chest.” The article, written by Julian E. Barnes, said “Fights between branches of the U.S. Military have erupted over responsibility for everything from drones to clocks as America’s armed forces battle to keep their share of a shrinking defense budget.” Sorry, but we just got around to reading the article.
Anyway, Sam and I harbor no doubt that our military is wasteful, spend thrifty and fiscally out of control much of the time. Hasn’t it always been so - except maybe at Valley Forge? Remember those expensive airplane toilet seats a few years back? And you just know that every branch of the military engages in that age-old proven government budget mentality of, “If we don’t spend it this year we won’t get more next year.” So, we must be ever vigilant against military waste.
On the other hand, it worries Sam and me a lot when we read that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has recommended reducing the Army to its smallest size since World War II and that somebody thinks we could make do with a couple fewer aircraft carriers, fewer airplanes, tanks and other military hardware. That may be true but let’s hope the military bosses take a long, hard, careful look at our hardware before consigning too much of it to the bone yard.
We certainly could make do with fewer military bases. Last time there was talk of closing a few bases the local citizenry making a good living off the bases and the base personnel screamed bloody murder and very few, if any, closings occurred.
Another money saving idea would be to combine some of our forces. Do we really need a Coast Guard and a Navy? Why can’t those be combined? Do we really need Marines and the Army? Why can’t those two services be combined? Do we even need an Air Force when every other branch of the military already has its own air force?
Sam and I do not want to see our military cut so thin this country can’t respond to the threats against it. That would be suicide. But a leaner, meaner, less costly fighting machine certainly ought to be possible. Our military needs to be able to adjust quickly to any threatening situation and so it must have that capability. Only problem is, we get the distinct impression that the Pentagon - which could certainly stand some shaving of its bloated bureaucracy-is just too bloated to figure out that somebody moved its cheese and we need leaner meaner mice. In today’s rapidly changing world, we need to be able to adjust to situations almost on the fly (no pun intended Air Force).
Two bags of poop on cutting our military so thin that it couldn’t quickly respond to dangerous situations. Unfortunately, many of the future “situations” we face may be right here at home rather than overseas somewhere. You never know what the local renegades might be building in their pressure cookers.
Anyway, Sam and I harbor no doubt that our military is wasteful, spend thrifty and fiscally out of control much of the time. Hasn’t it always been so - except maybe at Valley Forge? Remember those expensive airplane toilet seats a few years back? And you just know that every branch of the military engages in that age-old proven government budget mentality of, “If we don’t spend it this year we won’t get more next year.” So, we must be ever vigilant against military waste.
On the other hand, it worries Sam and me a lot when we read that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has recommended reducing the Army to its smallest size since World War II and that somebody thinks we could make do with a couple fewer aircraft carriers, fewer airplanes, tanks and other military hardware. That may be true but let’s hope the military bosses take a long, hard, careful look at our hardware before consigning too much of it to the bone yard.
We certainly could make do with fewer military bases. Last time there was talk of closing a few bases the local citizenry making a good living off the bases and the base personnel screamed bloody murder and very few, if any, closings occurred.
Another money saving idea would be to combine some of our forces. Do we really need a Coast Guard and a Navy? Why can’t those be combined? Do we really need Marines and the Army? Why can’t those two services be combined? Do we even need an Air Force when every other branch of the military already has its own air force?
Sam and I do not want to see our military cut so thin this country can’t respond to the threats against it. That would be suicide. But a leaner, meaner, less costly fighting machine certainly ought to be possible. Our military needs to be able to adjust quickly to any threatening situation and so it must have that capability. Only problem is, we get the distinct impression that the Pentagon - which could certainly stand some shaving of its bloated bureaucracy-is just too bloated to figure out that somebody moved its cheese and we need leaner meaner mice. In today’s rapidly changing world, we need to be able to adjust to situations almost on the fly (no pun intended Air Force).
Two bags of poop on cutting our military so thin that it couldn’t quickly respond to dangerous situations. Unfortunately, many of the future “situations” we face may be right here at home rather than overseas somewhere. You never know what the local renegades might be building in their pressure cookers.
No comments:
Post a Comment