Except the U.S. can’t do that with army active duty end-strength falling from a wartime high of 570,000 down to 450,000; a number judged barely adequate to meet existing U.S. commitments much less to make new ones. This is another legacy of the Obama administration, aided and abetted by anti-defense Republicans on Capitol Hill — the army has had to cut its active-duty forces to the bone because of excruciating budget cuts forced upon it by the sequestration process. All the services have suffered, but the army has been especially hard hit because of the illusion prevalent in Washington — just as there has so often been in the past — that we won’t have to fight ground wars again.
Read Full Article »
