The Army: Lot's of Technology; Not Much Armor

Why do we have a broken Army today?

One of the reasons goes back to the days before Iraq when Rumsfeld first came on board. At that point, Bush was committed to cutting back on personnel and investing with his friends, the Military and industrial complex, the guys who ante up the big donations.

Well, to make a long story short, they got there’s.

Here’s the run-up:

My original assessment was that Rumsfeld was between a rock and a hard place and that he would become the sacrificial goat. But I didn’t consider the depth of the relationship between Cheney and Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld was, it turns out, in an untenable position especially with the tax breaks and the investment in the Antimissile shield which was budgeted at over 264 billion dollars. (Still doesn’t work!)…

Okay, so there you are starting off with a mega-problem of having no money but tied to big plans.

What do you do?

The obvious: You substitute technology for manpower.

Rumsfeld cut back everywhere. He cut back on education to Vets; he cut back on Veteran housing and benefits. He cut back on care and treatments.

He even cut back on transportation and armor.

And all the money went to the big name contractors, the guys who know how to survive this game of lobbying and relationships, the Lockheeds, the Newport News, Northrup-Gruman, Boeing, and all of Cheney’s other friends like BRK and the rest; not to mention the guys on the sidelines who were making a killing in investments (Caryle).

But what the Secretary of the Army and his cohorts failed to realize that when all is said and done, what makes the difference is boots on the ground.

The fact of the matter is that hundreds of companies and subcontractors are richer than Croesus thanks to military contracts. The Dallas Tallahassee Belt is literally covered in gold..

And that military allocations have allowed subcontractors to field their own Armies who get an average of 150,000 dollars a year to serve in the Green Zone and live in four star accommodations—most of this coming from “expenses” paid for by the US taxpayer in the long run.

In the end, we are getting the tar beat out of us because we should have put half that money into the troops; we should have made them jump at an opportunity to reenlist; instead we did everything in our power to discourage them from wanting to make a career out of the US Army….

Meanwhile, the subcontractors get richer by the day; the consultants make money hand over fist and our GI”s buy their own armor vests.

Figure it out and let me know if it makes sense to you.

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon