I wondered when this would happen. I wondered when Marines would wake up to the implications of the sequester. Well no need to wonder anymore. Its happening right now.
He expressed concern about the size of the budget and force reductions and uncertainty about future funding levels. These factors, and the speed with which cuts are taking place, give the DOD leaders "very little flexibility in the tough decisions that are going to have to be made," he said.He lied his ass off.
Even with these challenges, the secretary emphasized that the U.S. military remains the world's best.
"Even with these cuts – and they are severe, and they may be even more severe – there is no question that America has the most significant military capability in the world," he assured the Marines.
"There is no military even close to this military," he said, a point he said the United States has made its friends, allies and adversaries alike.
"We are not without resources. We are not without capability," Hagel said. "You can measure that by any metric," most notably by the men and women in uniform.
"You are the best-trained, the smartest, the best-led, most professional military force this country has ever had," Hagel told the group. He lauded the noncommissioned officer corps that he said stands head and shoulders above all others. "No other armed force in the world, no one is even close to having an enlisted NCO corps like we have in our institution," he said.
The secretary also noted the U.S. military's technological superiority and a budget, that even with deep reductions, remains sizeable.
"When you look at the balance sheet here, we are going to be the best, most capable, strongest military force in the world for a long time to come," he said.
Strategic choices being made today will help ensure that continues into the future, Hagel said.
"I think this is going to make you stronger," he said, expressing confidence in America's people, its values and its military. "We will come out of this stronger than we went in," he said.
The Chinese are rapidly closing the gap and within 5 years will erase it.
But more importantly the troops are waking up to the facts of the sequester. What happens when the Marine Corps wakes up to the fact that leadership has been lying all along---about everything? The military is different from the civilian world. A level of trust must exist between leadership (even at the highest levels) or everything becomes iffy. When it reaches critical mass and that trust is lost that's when bad things happen. That's when this gets nasty.
Oh, dear !!
ReplyDeleteThe first budget-cut in history !!
And imposed by conservative budget-hawks no less !!
What shall we do, what shall we do ?!
Oh, 'the humanity...'
The end is near... where abouts ? This side of Joycee - or thear ?
Need help with translating politicalese?
ReplyDelete"We are not without resources. We are not without capability," Hagel said. "You can measure that by any metric," most notably by the men and women in uniform.
"You are the best-trained, the smartest, the best-led, most professional military force this country has ever had" (which is why you don't need expensive things like tanks, planes, support guns/mortars and guns, so we can cut those from the budget and you can go to war in your skivies with a trench knife and kill the enemy by simply sneering at them. If it doesn't work, well, there are always more recruits where you came from.)
Pity the army wasn't a bit more biblical in their budgetary outlook. If they had saved a bit more during their "7 years of plenty", maybe these "7 years of famine" would not have bit so hard.
Prior to WW2 the United States military a fifth rate power trained with wooden guns, arty, mortars and MG's.
ReplyDeleteTrucks had signs painted on the sides that stated TANK because there were no real tanks to train with.
The Imperial Japanese military and the NAZI war machine just laughed their collective axis asses off.
Then...Pearl Harbor, Bataan, Corregidor, Wake Island etc.
The democrats then said the same damned thing they are saying now.
The democrats lied and our guys died.
BOHICA.
Geebus, give it a rest. There weren't any Republicans clamoring for a massive military buildup by the US in the 1930s either. Until both parties realized they needed to be the 1940 Selective Training and Service Act, it wasn't a priority for either party.
DeleteHeck, even the 1940 draftees were painting "Over the Hill In October" when they were told their tour of duty was being extended past October 1941. We had a different country with different ideas about national service and the military. Prior to WWII, most American's found military service detestable and a waste of time, so blaming Democrats for Corregidor or Wake Island is absurd.
As an aside, while MacArthur gets props as combat commander, he sucked as a garrison commander. He let the Phillipines garrison get caught with its pants down in 1941 and his garrison troops in 1950 Japan were poorly prepared for S. Korea.
And the downward slide into irrelevancy begins.
ReplyDeleteWhen the SecDef has to give a pep talk about how we'll still be 'better than anyone else', he's admitting these cuts are permanent.
It's bullshit. remember when the JCS admitted that the military was no longer able to fight two wars simultaneously AND would adopt Win-Hold-Win, people took it as a huge letdown in prestige and capability.
And when Iraq/Afghanistan forced the Army and USMC to admit that their forces were too small for the roles assigned to it even if they hadn't invaded Iraq, Congress up the size for each.
Now that Hagel is trying to insist that the US military is still formidable, he's basically saying, "the cuts are here forever and we're never going to be as big as we are this minute"
We're fucked.
we read the situation exactly the same way. the worse part of it is that this has been telegraphed by both Obama and Hagel.
Deletethey want a smaller US military and the Republicans blundered into the con. job.