Originally Posted by
Stevely
How did we ever come to this? I know there are plenty of explanations, but it's one of those things that despite all that, and despite that I understand at some level (at least I think I do) at least some of those explanations, I can't understand, down in my gut, how it is that we came to this sorry impasse.
We reduced the size of the Army to a ridiculously small number in vain hopes of a "peace dividend" in the 90s, smoked Rummy's dope and thought we could make up for numbers with gizmos, and then with nothing left but a rump Army to fight two major conflicts simultaneously, we frittered away (are frittering away) the Army's future, we're eating its seed corn. I get that.
What I don't get down in my gut is how can it be that it seems no longer possible to increase the size of the Army back to, say, what it was in the first Gulf War? The Army is half the size it was when I was on active duty, yet it seems to me, we're spending even more money than we did then, and merely to increase the force 60k or so seems an impossible task. Something just doesn't add up. We spend incredible sums, but our ROI in terms of real military power seems to get less with every passing year.
A cynic might say that we have indeed undergone Transformation, but we have transformed ourselves into a force increasingly incapable of sustained combat.
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