US military readiness
Overview
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (not to mention the highly successful 1994 Balkan Intervention) it should be obvious (even to the liberal-minded) that the military is important for reasons other than killing people (a reputation strong in recent memory due largely to the unfortunate way they were used in Viet Nam).
Under the presidency of George W. Bush, however, US military readiness has plunged to dangerously low levels; as of this writing, we are not prepared to deal with even a single significant event, much less two.
As typical with every Democrat president after Kennedy (is this true? see #Notes -W.), former President Clinton cut the military, and President Bush (43) has waited until the military was already engaged to take the time to increase its size.
|
This page is a seed article. You can help Issuepedia water it: make a request to expand a given page and/or donate to help give us more writing-hours!
|
Links
- America's Declining State of Readiness, 2006, by David Brin (also [1], 2004)
- 2006-01-24 Study: Army Stretched to Breaking Point (alt: MSNBC, USA Today, Time, BBC News)
- 2005-01-06 Army Reserve breaking down, general warns; mission failure imminent
Notes
Midian added "As typical with every Democrat president after Kennedy, former President Clinton cut the military, and President Bush (43) has waited until the military was already engaged to take the time to increase its size." Clinton was at the tail-end of a decades-long gradual decline in military spending since the end of World War II; not all Democrats have cut military funding, and not all Republicans have increased it. See US Military Spending for more data.