General: 'This was the administration's plan all along'
WND
The Obama administration is proposing the biggest cuts to the military in generations, citing an end to the war in Afghanistan and the impact of sequestration, but critics allege the president and Pentagon officials are engaging in a deliberate and dangerous hollowing out of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney also said the cuts will further erode already poor military readiness and signal the world that the U.S. will be in no position to defend national security threats on the scale it has in years past.
On Monday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced plans for a $522 billion budget, which is still exponentially higher than than the defense budget for any other nation. But the plan also calls for bringing troop levels to the lowest level since before World War II.
The plan would bring Army troops down to between 440,000 and 450,000.
It also calls for the elimination of longstanding programs such as A-10 Warthogs and U-2 surveillance planes, although plans are in place to replace them with different aircraft, including unmanned vehicles.
The Navy will keep buying two destroyers and two attack submarines per year while shelving 11 cruisers for modernization.
But the shuffling of weaponry and shrinking of personnel in response to changing needs and budget demands are not impressing McInerney. He is also furious that the plan calls for service members paying more for housing, seeing fewer benefits and losing a billion dollars in spending on military commissaries.
Reposted with permission
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