Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey testified that he’s not exactly pleased with the plans outlined by the new Quadrennial Defense Review:
Dempsey predicted that it would become increasingly difficult to balance the competing demands of protecting allies abroad, securing Americans at home and deterring future wars.
“The smaller and less capable military outlined in the QDR makes meeting these obligations more difficult,” he said. “Most of our platforms and equipment will be older, and our advantages in some domains will have eroded. Our loss of depth across the force could reduce our ability to intimidate opponents from escalating conflicts.”
Dempsey added: “Moreover, many of our most capable allies will lose key capabilities. The situation will be exacerbated given our current readiness concerns, which will worsen over the next three or four years.”
It’s cool. The Professor ends wars, yo.
More seriously: We always do this, don’t we?
We got sick of the world after WWII and cut our forces. Next thing we knew there was a major land war in Korea. We got sick of the world after Vietnam and cut our forces. Next thing we knew the Soviets were all over Africa and Central America. We got sick of the world after the Cold War and cut our forces. Next thing we knew, 9/11 and Afghanistan and Iraq. Here we are today, still planning blithely to cut our forces to levels not seen since before Pearl Harbor, while the Russians are playing Annex Thy Neighbor with the choice bits of Ukraine.
The only conclusion to draw is that we’re very slow learners.
Well, that and Democrats can’t be trusted with military budgets in peacetime. They get a pass during wartime only because of FDR.
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