{"id":38303,"date":"2013-11-06T09:08:23","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T13:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=38303"},"modified":"2013-11-06T09:08:23","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T13:08:23","slug":"deja-vu-all-over-again-at-the-pentagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=38303","title":{"rendered":"D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again at the Pentagon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Stars & Stripes<\/a> reports that the Pentagon has forgotten all of the lessons that they should have learned after every war of the twentieth century. They think they can cut troops and buy more technology to replace those boots that should be on the ground in the next war;<\/p>\n

In a speech at a Washington security forum sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Hagel signaled that one of the hard questions facing military leaders at a time of plummeting military spending \u2014 whether to retain a hefty active-duty military with older equipment and technology, or cut troop numbers and focus on modernization \u2014 has largely been answered.<\/p>\n

The future of the U.S. military won\u2019t be one in which large numbers of troops grow accustomed to garrison life on major bases, he told the audience.<\/p>\n

Instead, to prepare for a chaotic and \u201chistorically unpredictable\u201d future global security environment, the military must focus future spending on beefing up advanced capabilities like cyberwar, special operations, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, Hagel said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s the same policy that the Defense Department touted after WWI, WWII, Vietnam and the Gulf War and each time there was a price to paid for trying to save money by not investing in the troops and depending on technology. The price was paid in blood at Kasserine Pass and in the Pusan Perimeter. In Iraq and Afghanistan, troops transitioned under fire from the “Meals on Wheels” missions of the 90s to actual combat operations. Nothing replaces Joe Snuffy defending the ground he stands on with his battle rifle firmly held and pointed at the enemy. <\/p>\n

In another Stars & Stripes<\/a> article, “the experts” are drawing down the pool of youngsters from which they can recruit future soldiers by slashing benefits;<\/p>\n

In testimony Tuesday, David Chu, former undersecretary for defense personnel, told the panel that studies have repeatedly shown that younger troops prefer bigger pay raises now to costly pension promises later. Changing those benefits could save the department billions annually.<\/p>\n

But he also acknowledged that\u2019s a difficult sell.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust mentioning retirement has poisoned the discussion,\u201d he said. \u201cEven the (troops) who likely won\u2019t reach the 20-year retirement are worried that we\u2019re breaking faith with them, that we\u2019re breaking promises.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

David Chu has been trying to slash troops’ pay and benefits since he served in the Pentagon under the Bush Administration, so I’m not surprised that he’s on a panel that plans on hacking up pay and benefits for a more receptive administration that thinks that recruiting will remain constant while they slash compensation.<\/p>\n

I predict that troops will soon be training with 2x4s for rifles and jeeps with “Tank” signs hanging off the sides like they did before World War II. I remember driving down Sicily Drop Zone at Fort Bragg, jumping off the back of duece-and-a-halfs to practice assembly on the drop zone because there was no money for aircraft during the Carter years. <\/p>\n

Still, Commission Chairman Alphonso Maldon Jr. told members Tuesday that he\u2019s confident they can spark an important rethinking of how to better compensate troops while reigning in personnel costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to get this right,\u201d he said. \u201cWe may not have another chance like this.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Translation: We might not get another administration willing to screw national security to the wall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Stars & Stripes reports that the Pentagon has forgotten all of the lessons that they … D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again at the Pentagon<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barack-obama","category-big-army"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}