REMINDER:   THAT TODAY OUR DEBT: 15.2 TRILLION DOLLARS.

Whats happening with the half a trillion budget cut to the military?  First of all, every one of our forces will be effected.  Its been stated that these cuts will significantly impact our government contractors and Sec. of Defense, Leon Panetta said they have to figure out which ones they can’t cut off completely.  We must continue to fund the most important companies in order to not lose our essential contractors, if and when they are needed to produce their products quickly.  However, immediate cuts will delay or stop much of the new stealth bombers and our replacements for the aging air fleet, already under contract.           Additionally, new weaponry projects are being put on hold in favor of high-tech warfare contractors, ie: unmanned drones and such.

The reasoning?  Counter insurgency campaigns are technically over, so we don’t need as many troops on the ground. 75,000 will remain active and more special operation forces will be trained and funded.  This is how our future military is described and its happening right now.
1/9 of the budget reductions are going to be felt in a reduction of military pay and we’re supposed to feel better about that because there will be an adjustment period for those currently enlisted before they see any changes… but don’t expect raises in pay. Healthcare changes are included as well, mostly for retiree’s and especially for the younger vets who are actually lucky enough to be employed.  This goes hand in hand with the huge push for corporations to employ veterans, especially those who are out for more than 6 mths.   I’m sure Mr. Panetta didn’t want to  start coup  by saying they were going to cut the retirement benefits of the currently enlisted…   So he stated they “don’t know what to do” about it just yet, as they didn’t want it to appear on the chopping block.  To avoid the obvious, they made a “commission” to discuss it further.

BOTH ROMNEY AND NEWT ARE CAMPAIGNING HERE IN FLA. SAYING THEY WOULD BUILD UP THE MILITARY, BUT NO ELABORATION ON WHAT ELSE THEY WOULD CUT INSTEAD…NOR ANY MENTION OF WHAT WE HAVE PROBLEMS WITH NOW AND HOW TO FIX IT.

I’m afraid that BOTH are at a loss for words about this historical budge cut and any candidate will be inclined to make an empty promise, at this point.  The debt will continue to affect the budget, just as it does now and it’s not going to look much different unless our economy is stimulated by taking back the manufacturing industry from overseas, cutting taxes for small business, reforming the legal system rising the cost of healthcare, among other things.  The bottom line is that the money just isn’t there to support all the programs and services people have come to expect and rely on.  Entitlement has become a multi-generational way of life. We don’t take care of each other like we used to,  rather we rely on the government to do it for us.  The longer we are in debt to the world bank, and paying them to make all our products at the same time, the less likely we are to have everything we need and want for our country anyway, so this is the future…its here and now we have to find a way to deal with it.  Its going to affect us all, if it hasn’t already.

I try to look at the silver lining and the good part I see is that we will be a more technologically advanced military with awesome special ops forces who are proven to be more effective than ground troops in  a counterinsurgency strategy.  The sad fact is that tribal populations and other similar type civilizations, don’t understand much about negotiations.  They don’t get what they want and won’t trust an outsider.  Instead they play both sides and ultimately, no one wins. What they do understand and respond to is sad but true… death and destruction.  Also, if we can keep ourselves out of a conflict that would need a huge ground force presence,  we will have less of our children coming home with wounds that would have previously killed them, along with  mind-blowing angst from traumatic stress, causing unbelievable burdens on our heroes, the family and ultimately society.   However, if we must occupy another country for the good of saving our own, we have no choice but to have boots on the ground.  That is the piece that worries me the most about such a drastic downsize of our troops.  It means there may be a time when it has to be drastically increased and I don’t want to see another draft because the way we take care of the troops we do have, is not attractive to recruit and retain.

Bottom line is that I’m not happy about these cuts when there are other places that should be completely disassembled, before our military.  Lets start with downsizing the major agencies that weren’t in existence before 1970 and help the States take care of their own.