[picapp align="none" wrap="false" link="term=u.s.+military+salute&iid=8941637" src="http://view3.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/8941637/naval-academy-graduation/naval-academy-graduation.jpg?size=500&imageId=8941637" width="500" height="276" /]
The forgotten.
This time, Obama's killing jobs in my hometown. Needless to say, this stinks!
Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a series of steps Monday aimed at reducing overhead in the defense budget and redirecting the money saved to the war effort and preparation for future conflicts.
Among his directives is the elimination of Norfolk's Joint Forces Command, which locally employs nearly 1,000 service members and about 4,000 civilians, many of them contractors.
It is part of a broader effort to trim $100 billion from the military's mammoth budget in the next five years, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begin to wind down and Congress turns its attention more to domestic priorities. Gates stressed that the money is not being cut outright - rather, the military services will be able to use the savings they find for war-fighting needs.
Once again, this White House interprets "hope and change" to mean "screw the military." It's curious, though—Are there any non-Defense jobs being cut by this Administration, anywhere?
(via Shad Plank)
Is cutting Norfolk's Joint Forces Command a good idea? I don't know, and I doubt if Obama or Virginia's politicians much care. Does Gates? I don't know, but I loved that quote.
"The culture of endless money that has taken hold must be replaced by a culture of savings and restraint," Gates said.
That from an official in the Obama administration?
What will be interesting to see is where the military cuts come from. With the Democrats in charge, we will see more defense budget cuts. The reason is simple. The Democrats don't consider the military and defense contractors part of their constituency. Moreover, even with two Democrat senators, Virginia looks to be back in the Republican ranks. So I suspect picking off a large military facility in Virginia looks like a good political move.
However, I am bit puzzled. Am I right? Is that facility in a Democrats district? Perhaps Glenn Nye been voting "wrong." I do believe he voted against that health care bill. Hmmmm.
Moving a carrier BACK to Florida is a strategically prudent measure. Combining JFCOM with redundant commands is also a smart move.
An even more bold step would be to cut our flag billets (Admirals and Generals) by eighty percent. The Air Force has an absurd number of generals compared to the force size. The Navy has enough admirals to put an admiral on every ship and still have some left over. The rest of the forces, are just as top heavy, with the Marines (a branch of the Navy) the most lean, but still bloated compared to WWII senior billets.
Given the far greater span of control afforded by advanced command, control and communications systems, we need far fewer layers of command and it is just intelligent management to trim the top heavy ranks combine some joint commands and to strategically locate assets so that enemy targeting will be more difficult.