OBAMA ORDERS TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ BY END OF THE YEAR

Science Chic wrote: Oh no, you called Hoot a HO - you're in for it now navy!

Are they definitely downsizing? I hadn't seen anything about that.

The Army alone wants to downsize by 2015 by 27000 troops. Some will be done through retirement, some through normal thier time is up so they do not want to reenlist. So we will see how it goes. The Army times reported this, that is also where I read about the Sgt Maj of the Army plans to go back to enforcing rules on the books about tattooes, haircuts etc.

Science Chic wrote: Oh no, you called Hoot a HO - you're in for it now navy!

Are they definitely downsizing? I hadn't seen anything about that.

Now that I read it, yep should have done something about it.

The Navy has been downsizing since the end of the cold war. Chief do you still get Navy Times. Reading between the lines, I would say they are past the end of the rope.

I am OK with downsizing ONLY if our civilian bosses downsize our commitments. Can you imagine how broken down and overworked they must be to go into an INSERV with running rust on the hull.

History never repeats but I seem to recall some footage of US Army solders in the late 1930's war gaming with trucks and broom sticks because there wasn't any money in the defense budget for new rifles or tanks back then for the Department of War (today's DoD) resources. It's ok though because on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of eleventh month of 1918 the war to end all wars came to a close and there have not been any wars since then... Don't forget to fly your US flag on Armistice Day, no pun intended.

Of course we all know better (well most of us anyhow), the difference is that today the threat is far more complex and diverse, a dirty bomb that fits in a suitcase or a few vials of weaponized anthrax showing up INCONUS are as viable as an ICBM strike. The missile might be launched from Iran, Pakistan, or Inda instead of our traditional adversaries. Not having carrier groups and submarines that can quickly project power globally will back fire and likely when the United States cannot afford it. But watch me be wrong, maybe all of the Arab spring activities, troops leaving Iraq, and UN pressure on Iran and North Korea will prevent any new conflicts.