- Joined
- Apr 27, 2023
- Messages
- 845
- Reaction score
- 1,012
- Gender
- Male
The math does not add up.
The Army is already down to only 10 divisions. The Marines have been at 3 divisions for decades. And you want to cut that even more?
To put it in perspective, the Chinese Army has 118 divisions. The Russian Army has 18 divisions. And you want to reduce it by even more? Hell, just have 1/4 of the nation cut their own throats, that would be even more efficient.
And who in the hell is going to do that support? Here is the biggest thing about the DoD (or any other government agency), it almost never shrinks. And I am talking about the civilian employees, not the members in uniform.
Case in point, are you even aware that while there are just over 1.3 million in uniform that are on active duty, there just under 750,000 civilian DoD employees. And that is not all of the civilians, just the ones that are actual DoD government employees. There are an addition 972,000 civilian contractors that also work for the DoD that are not direct government employees.
Yes, that makes 1,722,000 thousand civilians employed for 1,300,000 in uniform. There are literally more civilians being paid by the DoD than there are military in the DoD.
Want to really save money? Cut through those civilians with a chainsaw, and get rid of at least half of them. Because they all get paid a hell of a lot more than those in uniform do.
The average pay of a DoD employee is $87,000. The average pay of a DoD contractor is $90,000. The average pay for somebody in the military is $39,000.
Reducing the size of the military will accomplish absolutely nothing. And if anything, it will as it always does result in increasing the number of civilians on the DoD payroll.
I want to address the bolded issue.
You are thinking backwards.
World War I, World War II, Korea.
It is not 1953, it is 2025.
In a war with China, it matters not if we have 1 division or 100 divisions. The United States Army will not be engaging with China if we went to war with them over Taiwan. A war with China will be fought primarily with the Navy and to a smaller extent the Air Force and with missiles of all types. It may be fought with nuclear weapons. It will not be fought with the Army.
First of all, there is no way to get the Army to China alive. And China's Army is not coming here and even if it tried, it too would not arrive alive. China built up its Army with Russia, India and southeast Asia in mind, not the United States.
Even the Marines will be irrelevant, as China's robust area denial technology would prevent the Navy from getting in close enough to land them.
The USS Jimmy Carter might be able to get SEALS in, but that would be about it for ground forces.
The Army matters for piddling around in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. Time has passed it by for major wars. 8 divisions would do just fine.
Yes, I do know the Army is training for jungle warfare along China's southeast Asia border, but that pretty much would be no more than a nuisance to China and if early training results are any indication, it won't go over too well for the United States.
And again, that is even if the United States could get troops to southeast Asia at all without being taken out by various Chinese assets.
The United States should spending its limited money on the our nuclear deterrent submarine force, our attack submarine force and various conventional missiles and weaponry aimed at crippling or destroying the Chinese invasion fleet on its way from mainland China to Taiwan.
We are far better off transferring money from the Army to the Navy and other assets.