Pentagon push to phase out top brass causing much consternation

[unhappycamper]

Pentagon push to phase out top brass causing much consternation
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 13, 2010

Of all the spending cuts and budget battles the Pentagon is confronting, none is causing more angst than Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's vow to start getting rid of generals and admirals.

By almost any measure, the military is more top-heavy an institution than it has been for decades. Today, there are 40 four-star generals and admirals -- one more than in 1971, during the Vietnam War, even though the number of active-duty troops has shrunk by almost half.

The number of active-duty generals and admirals of all rank, meanwhile, has increased by about 13 percent since 1996.

It is, as Gates puts it, "brass creep."

But the defense secretary's pledge Monday to cut about 5 percent of the brass is nothing short of seismic for many at the Pentagon. The cuts would be the largest in the upper ranks since a similar squeeze at the end of the Cold War, when the collapse of the Soviet Union prompted the military to downsize.

[icnorth]

1. Only 5% eh? And they had an increase of

13% since 96? I say double it to 10% to reflect the reality of unemployment in America today. Time for the privileged to adjust. Oh, and don't feel too badly; their golden parachute packages will support them in the style they've become accustomed to.

[JohnyCanuck]

5. Not to mention.......

that many of the ex-brass, so cruelly cast onto the bread line, will no doubt find a cubbyhole with a desk and a small stipend provided for them from their buddies at Lockheed Martin, Northrop, Boeing, General Dynamics, Halliburton, Xe, Bechtel etc., etc, ad infinitum.

Alternately, they could just wait for the war drums to commence pounding for the next war on the horizon. Then, there will be plenty of gigs available at Fox News, CNN and the rest advising the viewers why yes, by golly, this war is absolutely necessary and explaining to the zombified TV audiences the details of the wizz-bang technology in the weaponry marketing videos Fox and CNN will be streaming 24/7. The audiences will need to know exactly how this new, more expensive stuff blows up people and things much more efficiently and into smaller pieces than the obsolete (and cheaper) stuff available in the last war.

[ThomCat]

2. They need to cut far more than 5% of brass,

and more than 5% of the military budget to go with it. It's the biggest unaccountable bloated miss in the federal budget, and it grows every year during peace or war.

Ending these two unnecessary wars, and slashing the Pentagon budget by a minimum of 10% (just to start) would give us a whole lot of money to use to start rebuilding the infrastructure and manufacturing base in this country.

We need to produce something in this country again other than weapons and wars.

[icnorth]

3. Better be careful there T.C.

we may get tagged as part of the "professional left". :)

[ThomCat]

4. We should take it as a compliment.

:patriot:

Edit to fix smilie

[Liberalynn]

6. Gates should be careful

Gibbs might tag him as part of the professional left too. ;)

[old mark]

7. In the Vietnam era, the professionall officer corps engaged in "ticket punching"...

Lets see, this Major needs to have command experience to be eligible for promotion, so we will give him command of a combat unit for a few months and then move him back to an administrative job and later make him a staff officer to a lower ranking General, then...

SO - many totally wrong officers got command of actual fighting units for a short time, got "experience" and a medal or two,(his ticket punched) and then rotated out to continue their career path. May were killed and maimed for life because of their officers drive for glory and lack of brains, but hey, the officers got promoted, so it's all to the good....Oh, the war, well...that will take care of itself...


mark

[Bandit]

8. I am sure they will all receive top retirement benefits

It won't help the financial crunch hardly at all. We need to cut New expenditures. Buying all the new space age crap that costs billions and doesn't help one iota in fighting terror. It is very doubtful we will enter any Conventional wars any time soon yet we keep building up our military for that very thing..We could cut our Defense Budget in half and still be spending more than any other country on earth, and be spending more than we were under Clinton.