The Meat & Potatoes Of The U.S. Military
Our country, the whole world, is on fire with flames continuously being fanned.
The swamp isn't draining, it's level is rising. The elites shirk their elected duties and wade right into the cesspit where there's plenty of mud to be found and flung. Want to put the focus and energy back on us little guys? Is that asking too much? A reminder to all the politicians out there, we pay your salaries. Never, ever forget that you work for us.
Nowadays, some people feel free to publicly wish the death of others, to humiliate those who are brave enough to ponder issues and express original thoughts and opinions, and those who are immorally dangerous and honestly believe that physical assault is acceptable.
What the fuck happened? Sorry, what the hell happened? How will this chaos be contained and extinguished? Somebody help me out here, because I have no clue.
We, the citizens of this nation who actually work hard to support our families, are being sucked neck deep into the muck by forces we cannot control. We’re in deep shit. We all know it, we’re stepping in it every time we turn around.
I am prior service, I took an oath, I love my country and will always stand with her, but she's been ground into the dirt. And, as loathsome as it sounds, I'll admit that I'm quite embarrassed to be an American right now. There, I said it - flog me if you must, but this isn't the America I grew up in nor signed up for.
Today's problems have been caused by (to just scratch the surface) the well intentioned, philosophical phenomenon called "Well, it looked good on paper"; the self-induced blood lust of pack mentality; disdain for the common man because, gosh golly gee, we are just too feeble to think for ourselves; the acceptable use of bald-faced lies in the self-righteous quest of annihilation through character assassination and, of course, pure unadulterated hate.
And, in my opinion, many crises are by intention and design (cough, cough, Merkel, Trudeau, Macron, ad naseum), with wheels set in motion long before we ever realized.
I don’t care what side of the political teeter-totter you’re on, I believe it’s fair to say that many of us would agree the U.S. government has created, and perpetuated, avoidable problems that have now mushroomed to catastrophic proportions and made our world a much more dangerous place to live.
The Obama (love him or hate him) Administration was not proactive; good at sitting on it’s thumbs; dinking around with healthcare; telling us where we could & could not take a crap; placing value on non-citizens over actual citizens; ignorant, blind or just didn’t care about what was in our best interest, treating the "fly over" states like inconvenient red-headed stepchildren, blah, blah, blah, underestimating terrorists.
Here’s the link to my article “ISIS = JV Team? WRONG!”
https://medium.com/@shakesdali/isis-jv-team-my-ass-156c13b43a7d
But The Biggie - the slicing and dicing of our military - is the most painful thorn in my side, and one of my greatest concerns.
During Obama’s two term tenure in office, our military degenerated into a shadow of it’s former, formidable self. The military was one of the top five victims of budget cuts.
Military budget
Under Obama, military spending increased in 2010 and 2011 but, due to the premature withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, fell every year thereafter by a cumulative 15%. This is huge.
To put the above in better perspective consider this. In 2010, national security spending was approximately 20.1% of the Fed budget. By the end of 2015 it was 15.9 percent. If we ignore ISIS then they'll go away, so let's slash a budget that protects us. Right, JV team my ass.
Keep in mind that it’s not all about budgeted dollars, but how the money is allocated. It’s also about the opinions of top brass, because they are living the experience. This link helps to break down the period 2009 - 2016.
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_budget_actual
Troop Strength
In 2012, the number of troops was 570,000. At the beginning of 2016, the number had dropped to 490,000 with the intention of reducing further to 450,000 for FY2018. Looks like that's been thwarted... I hope.
Officer Drawdown
Let's call a spade a spade. It was a Purge with capital P.
By the summer of 2014, 550 Majors and 1,188 Captains were unceremoniously tossed out on their asses. 20% of them started off as enlisted and many clearly intended the military to be their career. After that initial shakedown more expected to loose, and did loose, their jobs the following year and in 2016 at a lesser degree.
In November of 2014 the NY Times included the following in the linked article:
"Then this summer, on the day Captain Saintjuste reached his 20 years, the Army told him that as part of the postwar downsizing of the force he would have to retire. And adding insult to injury, he would have to retire as a sergeant, earning $1,200 less per month, because he had not been a captain long enough to receive a captain’s pension.
“I worked, I sacrificed, I risked my life, and they took it away like it didn’t matter,” Captain Saintjuste said as he brought groceries into his house near Fort Bragg. “It wasn’t just losing a job. It was like having your wife leave you suddenly and not tell you why. It’s your whole life.”
Enough said. I was spitting nails when this all went down, and I still am.
On the other hand, the Trump (love him or hate him) Administration, is making huge mistakes on the international stage. He's hugging the Saudis so tightly they should just pony up and get a room. And there is other crap occurring.
Here's a link to my article “Our Next Vietnam?”
https://medium.com/@shakesdali/our-next-vietnam-62fa61ec7bed
However, Trump is cognizant of the importance of beefing up our military by increasing the number of troops through active recruitment, retention, and incentives. An Army fights on its stomach, and carries us on it’s back.
I despise the thought of more boots on the ground, however there is need for more personnel in MOS's that are not frontline. The following post deals with the need for increased cybersecurity and NATO's realization that it's just as important as tanks and jets.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1444153688986497&id=100001756388447
And we can still be formidable, IF we don’t expand our presence into every damn country on the globe. We are currently present in over 175 countries. WTF? Do we really need to babysit everybody? Can we stop thinking we need to get involved in every single problem in the world? I don’t think so. I believe that we need to pick our battles strategically with an eye on injustices, genocides and actual threats to security (you know, people), and not on the always present culprit - money.
The whole point of this article is to spotlight the current shameful state of the U.S. military. The reports I am pulling information from are authored by the reputable think tank The Heritage Foundation. FYI, the reports also address Intelligence, Homeland Security, threats to U.S. vital interests and preempting future aggression. Absolutely worth reading, the links are provided at the end of this piece. So, here we go into the abyss.
2016 Index of U.S. Military Strength
The Index is an assessment of man & machine readiness and capability, rating the effectiveness of each branch of service individually as well as nuclear weapons capability. The 2016 report was abysmal.
The assessments are the overall score of each branch. The overall score is based on the individual determinations of capacity, capability and readiness. Links to the reports, providing you with detail and data, are at the end of this piece.
U.S. Army 2016
The Army's score had dropped to 'weak', driven primarily by further cuts to its size.
U.S. Navy 2016
The Navy continued to be 'marginally capable' of defending U.S. interests. Its fleet remained undersized and readiness challenges had grown.
U.S. Air Force 2016
The Air Force fell to 'marginal' in its ability to contribute to military power. This was driven largely by mounting readiness concerns.
US Marine Corps 2016
The Corps had to favor readiness over modernization due to budget cuts and scores as 'marginal'. The service was also too small to meet increasing demands for its forces.
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Capability 2016
America's nuclear deterrent force remained 'marginally able' to provide strategic security. Modernization shortfalls factored heavily into this.
Now, compare last year’s report to this year’s.
2017 Index of U.S. Military Strength
The current Index reports our country still does not have the right force to meet requirements and is not yet capable to carry out it's duties effectively. These are the overall scores.
U.S. Army 2017
The Army's score continues as 'weak', driven primarily by further cuts to its size.
The root cause is attributable to staying within budget, driven by the Budget Control Act of 2011, while still meeting the missions outlined in the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance (DSG).
U.S. Navy 2017
The Navy continues to be 'marginally capable' of defending U.S. interests. Its fleet remains undersized and readiness challenges continue to grow.
To quote Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John M. Richardson, "... recent years' cuts and unstable budgets have caused the Navy to modify it's behaviors with a host of inefficient practices, and budget constraints are forcing choices that limit our naval capability in the face of growing and rising threats."
U.S. Air Force 2017
The Air Force continues to be scored as 'marginal' in its ability to contribute to military power.
The accumulating shortage of pilots and maintainers has begun to affect the ability to generate the amount of combat air power that would be needed to meet wartime requirements.
US Marine Corps 2017
The Corps remains 'marginal', but is now just a hair's breadth away from falling down to weak. The possibility of further decline, in both capacity and readiness, signals that this score could drop in the very near future.
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Capability 2017
America's nuclear deterrent force remains 'marginal'. The breakdown is as follows.
Stockpile Score = Strong, although with our cache sitting idle and aging, precision will be effected. This score could easily slip to marginal and affect the overall score.
Delivery Platform Reliability = Strong. This category is based on successful missile launch, the separation of missle boost stages, the separation of warheads from vehicles, and the accuracy of the final re-entry vehicle reaching it's target. That's nice, but what good does do is if what is being launched is crap?
Warhead Modernization Score = Weak. Read the report as this is very concerning.
Delivery Systems Modernization Score = Marginal. Again, age is everything - component failure, malfunctioning equipment, degraded/corrupted electronics, etc.
Nuclear Weapons Complex Score = Weak. This deals with where and how warheads are stored. I urge you to read the 2017 index.
I've reported at length about our country's need to beef up its military without sacrificing the soft skills necessary to maintain victory.
We must balance defense with development and diplomacy. As of this moment, our government is seeking to cut the International Affairs budget (currently less than 1% of the overall budget of $4 Trillion) by one third.
Here's a link to my article "The Synergy Of Love & War" that explains how detrimental it will be if our soft skills are cut.
https://medium.com/@shakesdali/the-synergy-of-love-war-b39e36c07bc0
Budgets are fickle, they are fluid and are easily massaged. They are also very easy to bungle if you don’t understand the real world - threats, logistics, consequences, the value of human life here and abroad.
There is no way that all of us will ever be happy with the ways the Feds earmark our tax dollars. But ill informed prioritizing is tantamount to putting rat poison in our drinking water.
So keep an eye on what happens to our military, like skin it is our first line of defense. Fingers crossed.
Please drop me a line if you find any mistakes or inconsistencies in my article.
http://index.heritage.org/military/2016/assessments/us-military-power/
