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LiberalArkie

(15,686 posts)
Mon Jan 27, 2014, 07:52 PM Jan 2014

Heading into 2014, the state of defense is solidly ill-defined and in flux. And the brass knows it.

http://www.defenseone.com/state-of-defense/

Just about every top military leader has at once touted U.S. military dominance while warning that politics and spending cuts are hollowing out the forces. Now, there’s little clarity about what to do with those forces after the wars. If the message of 2013 was budget uncertainty, the message of 2014 seems to be mission uncertainty. The war in Afghanistan is finally ending. What comes next?


U.S. soldiers train in the Sinagpore jungle // Army Photo

On one hand, there’s the United States military that’s the best-equipped, trained and ready to fight in world history. On the other hand is a military that, if you listen to Pentagon leaders and the national security echo chamber, is constantly telling Congress and the American people that the United States faces a state of dire emergency, under-funded, under-manned, under-equipped for the global security mandate it’s been given.

If past is prologue, just look at how the Pentagon closed out 2013 before you try and read into 2014. Despite demands that a post-2014 troop deal for Afghanistan be in place by the end of the year, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai – a U.S. ally, mind you – says he won’t sign it. Like many Americans, Karzai is questioning why U.S. troops should stay in Afghanistan after 13 years of war. And when proof emerged that Syrian President Bashir al-Assad used chemical weapons against his own people, President Barack Obama couldn’t get enough support to launch a military strike against him.

Talk about war weariness.

<SNIP>

This is a good read at the link


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Heading into 2014, the state of defense is solidly ill-defined and in flux. And the brass knows it. (Original Post) LiberalArkie Jan 2014 OP
I have a family member who is on an air force base GRACIEBIRD Jan 2014 #1
I'm pretty sure the military will go back to training and preparing for TwilightGardener Jan 2014 #2
 

GRACIEBIRD

(94 posts)
1. I have a family member who is on an air force base
Mon Jan 27, 2014, 08:03 PM
Jan 2014

and the cafeteria is closed. They have to buy out-food all the time. So he works 50+ hrs per week for like $1500USD and has to spend money on food.

TwilightGardener

(46,416 posts)
2. I'm pretty sure the military will go back to training and preparing for
Mon Jan 27, 2014, 08:39 PM
Jan 2014

the next war or the next mission...just with a little less money and slightly fewer things and a little fewer people. And it will be OK, Kevin Baron...whoever you are.

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