I've looked it up and you are misinformed, sir. The post-Cold War downsizing of the military was a necessary and bi-partisan undertaking by Congress. It started under Reagan, continued under Bush41, Clinton, and under Bush43 who has overseen much downsizing. It involved Base Realignment And Closure (BRAC) acts begun in 1991 and Pentagon Reduction in Force (RIF) policies begun in 1985.
You are correct sir. I missed the BRAC acknowledgement however your findings are consistent with my post earlier. Our force structure has definitely changed since Ronnie was writing the checks. Again I do not have exact numbers which changed over time, perhaps your findings will tell, but I remember the days under Regan where all you had to do was want it and you got it. Today is a much different story. Nice dig. :thumb:
Yes he did, and Cali was correct, the numbers are just not the same. As for the findings, I don't know where you found them but slick willie had more to do with it than any partisan reagan bush deal you are talking about. I won't and don't claim to know everything about anything, I do however know that I've been on active duty for the last 19 + years and I know what the hell I"m talking about when it comes to the military. Clinton F'in SCREWED us big time. It matters not to me if you want to have his children or how good of a president you think he may have been. He was a scoundrel and a disgrace to the country IMHO (for those of you who want "facts") and I would imagine we are years away from finding out just how big of a rat the a hole really was. God help us.
OK amigo, we understand that you don't like Clinton. He let women serve in combat and he let gays serve too, as long as they kept their business to themselves. A lot of soldiers resent that. But if you ever come up with some evidence and facts that he "screwed the military", get back to us. 'Cause the record doesn't show that to me. The worse readiness that we've had since the end of the Cold War is right now because of the Iraqi occupation . . . and you certainly can't blame Sir William of Smooth for that.
I couldn't resist the topic: Any technique (torture) is fine by me as long as I don't know about it. Red mentioned using special forces for these manuvers instead of full blown military forces. I agree and I believe that is being done in many parts of the world and the US has been using those small special forces missions for the better part of 70 years now. But in using those special forces, do we think they are out handing out candy to people? No, they are killing people and doing ghastly things that no average American needs to know about. There are thousands of things (dirty things) that our military does to get their mission accomplished (get intel) and I'm thankful for it and we don't need to know what they do in those times. And to me, waterboarding, boardingwater, candlewax on the nipples, having weiner dogs scare terrorists, any horrible torture device, etc.......should NOT be for public consumption and should be used every minute to do what this country needs to do to defeat our enemies.
Okay Red, lets back it down just a notch. The problems with the military and the war in iraq/afgan are directly related to what happened under bc. Call it what you want to or blame it on whoever but during his presidency the military got sliced. Not just the army who lost at least 2 divisions but the other services as well. It's hard to keep forces in country when there are no forces to send.
I don't think it's that no one wanted to "take it on" as much as it is a what comes around goes around. We are this worked up over some water being poured on someone while they are strapped to a board. The funny thing is this is what you know about. A previous posted made this point and it's a good one. There are things going on a whole lot worse than this I'm sure and I have no problem with it. The defense of this country is paramount.
No way this interrogation method can be considered torture when the guy in the video that was posted in the thread opening is chuckling when it's all said and done. Not to mention that the video was complete liberal hackery that offered no alternative viewpoints other than those from the experts at Harvard University.
