The United States military is demonstratively weaker at this point than it has been for some time, thanks to Barry. Course, the Republicans in Congress are as much to blame for failing to put a stop to it. For example, a wing of F-16's to be rotated into the Persian Gulf from Georgia, had to be held back for an extra month. Out of 60 aircraft, at the time of their notification for rotation, only four of the aircraft were flyable. Spare parts did not exist in the supply chain to fix the others. At the time of their notification, pilots were down to only 4 hours of flying time, per month. How did they fix it? They cannibalized two wings of their needed parts, one from New Mexico and the other from California.
The previous three Secretaries of Defense; Hagel, Panneta and Gates have all gone on record saying that the number one reason for their departure was the incredible over reach of the Obama administration into the military and the dismantling of the American military. Gates remarked that it was incredible how lowly White House aides would call theater commanders and demand that they provide them information and then gave them orders out of the chain of command. Shades of gross mismanagement. Panneta told his theater commanders that if they got a call from a White House aide that they were to tell them to "kiss their ass" and then call Panneta directly. All three advised that it continuously happened and never ceased. Ash Carter, when asked if it was still happening, joked that "I'll take the 5th." What a way to run a military.
As for the United States Army, out of 16 combat brigades, the Pentagon has reported that 11 of them are 100% unable to fulfill any deployment requirements. Two of the others are at 50% and the remaining three receive the lion share of the available supplies and as a result are rotated in and out of theater more than should be. The United States Navy is down to around 275 active duty ships, and the United States Marine Corps may have one expeditionary force available at a time. Two is absolute fantasy. The United States Air Force's nuclear forces are in a state of chaos and we just sent 70 year old bombers to the middle east to help fight ISIS.
To tell me that Russia is merely reacting to American and European aggression is absolute fantasy. It wasn't the United States or Europe that provoked Russia's encroachment into Crimea, Georgia and the eastern Ukraine, even though Russia denied it. At the time of the US's stationing of a division's worth of equipment in Norway, Russia had already recommissioned two Naval bases above the arctic circle and had moved ten divisions from the Ural's into their northern territories to sit on the border of Latvia and Estonia. Needless to say, Mother Russia did not react well to Latvia and Estonia's request to join NATO. To say that Russia is merely 'reacting' to US and European aggression is stupidity and gross ignorance. Really, you need to read something besides Dr. Seus' guide to Russian aggression, 'Red eggs and borst.'
The American serviceman will do his duty. He will do more, with less and do it so well that people will think that he has what he needs. But he does not. And that means that if he is called upon to fight, he will die. But he will do so proudly. Less than 1% of the people in this country will serve. They are the heros because they have to fight with the crap that BARRY and YOU give them. Course, you wouldn't.
