Army’s Message At AUSA: Don’t Cut ‘Foundational Force’

[unhappycamper]

http://breakingdefense.com/2014/10/armys-message-at-ausa-dont-cut-foundational-force/



Army’s Message At AUSA: Don’t Cut ‘Foundational Force’
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on October 13, 2014 at 4:00 AM

~snip~

Congress, Sequester, and the National Guard

All this comes back to budgets, of course. “When you start getting into the debate about how big should the Army be — 420, 490, whatever it is — I think what gets lost in the discussion is all of these other enablers,” Swan said.

420,000 to 490,000 soldiers is the current official range of sizes for the active-duty Army, depending on whether sequestration cuts take full effect or not. But the size and missions of the Army Reserves and National Guard are also at stake, something which Swan acknowledges has caused problems. With the state Guard forces in particular having different legal authorities, lifestyles, and even loyalties than the full-time federal Army, he said, “there’s always tension in a system like that but it’s been made worse by the sequestration dynamic.”

~snip~

Then AUSA, NGAUS, and the 29 other members of The Military Coalition (TMC) can form a united front against the budget cuts, Swan pledged: “As the Congress comes back into session after the election, [we] are going to make a concerted effort to once again push back on sequestration.”

If the military can get some relief from the sequester, as President Obama himself has urged, that reduces the pressure on the Army’s various factions and should lessen the likelihood they will fight bitterly for their slice of an ever-shrinking pie. But to make the case for cash to Congress, those factions need to agree on an effective message. Will “foundational force” do the trick?


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We can find money to bomb, drone and invade people. We've been coughing up our $50 billion dollar a year sequestration from everything not dark blue in the above graphic.

Edwin Starr got it correct: