Rumsfeld mulls cut in military personnel

[Thom Little]

Hampered by an increasingly combative relationship with Congress, the Pentagon is expected to seek savings from its payroll rather than making deep cuts in major weapons programs in its next long-range plan.

The blueprint for military restructuring that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is to release early next year -- an exercise the Pentagon undertakes every four years -- is the first one fully conceived since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The review is expected to confirm Rumsfeld's views that the military must be lighter, more agile and better equipped to fight terrorism and confront weapons of mass destruction.

Officials said Rumsfeld is considering several options for cutting personnel costs, including:

-- Eliminating 40,000 Air Force jobs over the next six years, including active duty, civilian and reserves.

-- Cutting up to three National Guard brigades, each of which generally has about 3,500 troops.

-- Scaling back plans to increase active Army forces.


http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/12/14/rumsfeld_mulls_cut_in_military_personnel/

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. We ARE already over stretched

join the army and be on rotation all the time, new slogan

[rfkrfk]

2. the Air Force and Navy, are too big

do we NEED, twelve aircaft carriers,
plus six helicopter carriers?

[wakeme2008]

3. just because Rummy is cutting the number of people in the Navy

that does not mean he will stop building new ships that the Navy does not want now. :grr:

[AnneD]

17. But...

who will man the ships? I see this in Nursing too. They build hospitals (esp specialty hosp cause they can get more$$$$) but don't discover until they open them that they don't have Nurses to man them.:banghead:

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Given the type of navy rummy wants

you will not see a cut in ships...

[Spinzonner]

5. Yeah, that'll work

Stop Loss for Life with the current forces

[Lindsay]

6. Rumsfeld is insane.

Just flat-out batshit crazy.

[Kahuna]

7. "Help is on the way.." Remember when the chimp said that?

Another one of his blatant lies.

[Solly Mack]

8. a Pentagon "cut" never means "weapons" programs - it always

means personnel cuts and benefit cuts.

The Pentagon ain't giving up the "pork" if they can help it.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1968188&mesg_id=1968188

[mbperrin]

9. See, if Carlyle and others manufactured people instead of things,

then we wouldn't need to hire fewer people and buy more things.

It's just an unfortunate circumstance. Specially if you're a people.

OK, I'm ready for Rummy and the rest of the lizard folk to go back to their home planet now.

[AzDar]

10. Yep, brilliant idea, Rummy...heckuva job. Let's just pull a few back

for the '06 elections, and leave the unfortunate troops left behind even MORE vulnerable.We should call it the "Roanoke" strategy...
Let them be picked off (blown up) one-by-one 'til one day they've all just mysteriously disappeared, leaving but one word scratched into an oil well.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

11. Right. Shifting the numbers to the Army or USMC, but not eliminating.

[hadrons]

12. "Eliminating 40,000 Air Force jobs" ... HA,HA, so much for that Bush vote

[Ezlivin]

13. Pentagon wants to replace men with machines

This month's Popular Science has a cover story about a driver-less tank. The copy reads "Tomorrow's Robot Army: Inside the Pentagon's Plans for a Soldier-Free Battlefield."

You know that defense contractors are absolutely salivating over the possibilities of making soldiers into a product they can crank out.

[wordpix2]

14. we know how well THAT's worked---9-11 and Iraq

[pushycat]

19. Skynet. Pentagon will run Skynet w/for-profit contractors. eeek

[Nickster]

15. But but but, Clinton decimated the military.....

[AlCzervik]

16. i was just going to say that.

[No Exit]

18. Start with YOURSELF, Don, you fuckface.

[gratuitous]

20. We shall defeat the terrorists with bloated defense contracts

Thus saith the Rumsfeld, and so mote it be.