![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Almond-Marsh-sunset-incoming-flight-10-2014-300x168.jpg\")
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Per this article, the US force presence in Afghanistan is too small to make much of a difference at all, and withdrawal won\u2019t have much impact on what happens there. Budget cuts are at work here, the size of the Army is retreating rather than growing, and funds that might have gone to support a stronger and well-trained force are under the budget knife.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2021\/04\/27\/the-force-is-still-too-small-army-chief-says-and-afghanistan-withdrawal-wont-really-help\/<\/a><\/p>\n From the article:\u00a0 Ending the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan<\/a> won\u2019t be of much use to Army planners sweating the size of the force, as fiscal constraints loom large over the service in the coming years.<\/p>\n The Army\u2019s end-strength growth<\/a>, once expected to top 500,000 active-duty soldiers<\/a>, has slowed to a crawl in recent years and currently sits at roughly 485,000 troops.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the same size Army that we had on 9\/11, and when I take a look at what the requirements are, when I take a look at what historically we needed, and now that we\u2019re in a time of great power competition, I\u2019m very, very concerned about the size of the Army,\u201d Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville said during a Tuesday discussion<\/a> at the Center for a New American Security.<\/p>\n Much of the strain on the Army\u2019s size comes from the combatant commands, where soldiers make up the bulk of military personnel deployed across the world. But the impending withdrawal from Afghanistan, in U.S. Central Command\u2019s area of responsibility, won\u2019t make much of a difference.<\/p>\n \u201cThe number of troops in Afghanistan is really not a significant amount,\u201d McConville said when asked how the withdrawal would factor into end-strength woes.<\/p>\n Growing the Army also doesn\u2019t appear to be happening in the current fiscal environment, unless the service cuts into readiness and modernization funding. – article<\/p>\n This does logically beg the question re: why we were there in the first place, but we\u2019ve been there for such a long time, I don\u2019t think it matters much any more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"