American Military Power On The Decline
March 04, 2014 | Tom Olago
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As America’s rivals such as China, North Korea, Russia and Iran increase their military capabilities and stockpiles, the U.S is actually cutting down on military equipment in a sign that could very well signal the end of American military dominance.
A report written by Bill Gertz for the Washington Free Beacon states: “ President Barack Obama will sharply cut ships, aircraft, and troops as part of a major reduction of U.S. military forces that will face even steeper downsizing in 2016, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced on Monday. The defense cuts, to be announced formally in the president’s budget proposal next month, would reduce U.S. ground forces to their lowest level since World War II at a time when world threats are increasing. The defense secretary outlined the dramatic reductions in a briefing for reporters at the Pentagon. They include significant cuts in Navy shipbuilding and Air Force aircraft purchases, and a 20 percent reduction in Army ground forces. Several new weapons systems will be slashed and older weapons retired.”
What could justify the U.S taking steps that seem to undermine its ability to defend itself and its citizens? After all, it is evident that the threat of war is rapidly rising, with rogue nations and criminals scrambling to acquire weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), especially nuclear warheads. Events in the Ukraine serve as a good reminder that even the smallest spark of conflict can fan the flames of wider conflict.
Hagel then specifies some more of the dire implications: “The military impact will include diminished training and maintenance and increased stress on forces. It also will result in “diminishing our global readiness even as we sustain a heightened alert posture in regions like the Middle East and North Africa…The cuts will also increase the “risk of uncertainty in a dynamic and increasingly dangerous security environment…in particular, advanced weapons of “other powers” will make it more difficult for the military in dealing with those threats, including anti-air and anti-ship weapons”.
One of those “other powers” is undoubtedly China. Ominously, the Washington Beacon report also states that China confirmed last month that it conducted the first flight test of an ultra-high-speed maneuvering vehicle that can be used to deliver nuclear warheads and to defeat U.S. strategic missile defenses.
Freebeacon.com further reports: “The announced cuts for the fiscal 2015 budget and future years follow an earlier cut of $487 billion in defense spending over 10 years and automatic spending cuts imposed on the Pentagon by the Budget Control Act. Those cuts, known as sequestration, included $37 billion last year and involve an additional $75 billion in cuts in 2014 and 2015. After the recent budget agreement in Congress, additional sequestration cuts were put on hold until 2016, when new cuts amounting to $600 billion over a total of 10 years will be reimposed. Congress must approve the new cuts.”
Hagel said the cuts would: “…make the Army “highly ready and capable” and “able to dominate any opponent across the full spectrum of operations…the current force is “larger than we can afford to modernize and keep ready.”
Further examples of cuts earmarked for implementation are as follows:
1. - The removal of the Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle program, a $28 billion program to replace armored vehicles currently in use.
2. - Army National Guard and Reserve forces also will be cut from 560,000 troops to 530,000 troops.
3. - The Air Force will reduce the number of tactical air squadrons… should sequestration resume at projected levels in 2016, the Air Force will cut 80 additional aircraft.
4. - For the Navy, 11 aircraft carrier strike groups will be kept but the USS George Washington will be retired in 2016, leaving 10 carrier groups.
5. - Eleven warships—half of the Navy’s cruiser fleet—will be taken offline or placed in a reduced operating status while they are upgraded.
6. - Hagel said Navy plans for Littoral Combat Ships, designed for mine-sweeping and anti-submarine warfare near coasts, are being limited to 32 ships, amid concerns the warships would not survive against advanced Chinese weaponry.
7. - Marine Corps cuts will include further planned reductions from the current level of 190,000 Marines to 182,000 Marines, with a further cut to 175,000 after 2016.
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney reportedly said of the proposed cuts that they are “continuing on its path of unilateral disarmament that was started by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in April 2009…This action announced today will escalate the demise of our military unilaterally and we still have no strategy for defeating radical Islam after 9/11. This is very dangerous.”
Adding to those dangers is the perception that U.S threats cannot be taken seriously given that it’s ‘bark’ is considered worse than its ‘bite’. In a separate recent report by newsmax.com titled “…US in Global Retreat”, Harvard Professor Niall Ferguson has stated that the United States' "geopolitical taper" is having long-lasting, significant effects on the country's national security strategy, as world powers stop taking President Barack Obama's warnings seriously."The world remembers the red line that Mr. Obama once drew over the use of chemical weapons in Syria...and then ignored once the line had been crossed....but Obama's tapering, or promising consequences only when other nations step "over the line" is far more significant…when the president commented that "there will be consequences if people step over the line” in the raging battles between Ukrainian protesters in Kiev and government forces, nobody took the warning seriously.”
Ferguson goes on to quote Iraq, Afghanistan, the Arab Spring, Egypt, Libya and Syria as examples of costly indecision or delayed military action by the U.S.
America now seems to have become a ‘sitting duck’ firmly in the crosshairs of her enemies. And with the U.S. economy in dire straits and the debt position in crisis mode, it would seem that inability to continue funding the military adequately, is the No. 1 driving force behind the military cuts. However lowering defense spending becomes self defeating if America will not be able to defend herself when her enemies choose to strike again – for there will no longer be a United States to continue with the other ‘higher priorities’.
So if the U.S cannot protect itself, who will? There has never been a more important time than now for Christians worldwide to intercede in prayer for the United States of America and her allies.
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. “ 2 Chronicles 7:14
Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/March04/041.html#DIPjCZZYUmIc8Iaq.99
March 04, 2014 | Tom Olago
Share this article
As America’s rivals such as China, North Korea, Russia and Iran increase their military capabilities and stockpiles, the U.S is actually cutting down on military equipment in a sign that could very well signal the end of American military dominance.
A report written by Bill Gertz for the Washington Free Beacon states: “ President Barack Obama will sharply cut ships, aircraft, and troops as part of a major reduction of U.S. military forces that will face even steeper downsizing in 2016, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced on Monday. The defense cuts, to be announced formally in the president’s budget proposal next month, would reduce U.S. ground forces to their lowest level since World War II at a time when world threats are increasing. The defense secretary outlined the dramatic reductions in a briefing for reporters at the Pentagon. They include significant cuts in Navy shipbuilding and Air Force aircraft purchases, and a 20 percent reduction in Army ground forces. Several new weapons systems will be slashed and older weapons retired.”
What could justify the U.S taking steps that seem to undermine its ability to defend itself and its citizens? After all, it is evident that the threat of war is rapidly rising, with rogue nations and criminals scrambling to acquire weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), especially nuclear warheads. Events in the Ukraine serve as a good reminder that even the smallest spark of conflict can fan the flames of wider conflict.
Hagel then specifies some more of the dire implications: “The military impact will include diminished training and maintenance and increased stress on forces. It also will result in “diminishing our global readiness even as we sustain a heightened alert posture in regions like the Middle East and North Africa…The cuts will also increase the “risk of uncertainty in a dynamic and increasingly dangerous security environment…in particular, advanced weapons of “other powers” will make it more difficult for the military in dealing with those threats, including anti-air and anti-ship weapons”.
One of those “other powers” is undoubtedly China. Ominously, the Washington Beacon report also states that China confirmed last month that it conducted the first flight test of an ultra-high-speed maneuvering vehicle that can be used to deliver nuclear warheads and to defeat U.S. strategic missile defenses.
Freebeacon.com further reports: “The announced cuts for the fiscal 2015 budget and future years follow an earlier cut of $487 billion in defense spending over 10 years and automatic spending cuts imposed on the Pentagon by the Budget Control Act. Those cuts, known as sequestration, included $37 billion last year and involve an additional $75 billion in cuts in 2014 and 2015. After the recent budget agreement in Congress, additional sequestration cuts were put on hold until 2016, when new cuts amounting to $600 billion over a total of 10 years will be reimposed. Congress must approve the new cuts.”
Hagel said the cuts would: “…make the Army “highly ready and capable” and “able to dominate any opponent across the full spectrum of operations…the current force is “larger than we can afford to modernize and keep ready.”
Further examples of cuts earmarked for implementation are as follows:
1. - The removal of the Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle program, a $28 billion program to replace armored vehicles currently in use.
2. - Army National Guard and Reserve forces also will be cut from 560,000 troops to 530,000 troops.
3. - The Air Force will reduce the number of tactical air squadrons… should sequestration resume at projected levels in 2016, the Air Force will cut 80 additional aircraft.
4. - For the Navy, 11 aircraft carrier strike groups will be kept but the USS George Washington will be retired in 2016, leaving 10 carrier groups.
5. - Eleven warships—half of the Navy’s cruiser fleet—will be taken offline or placed in a reduced operating status while they are upgraded.
6. - Hagel said Navy plans for Littoral Combat Ships, designed for mine-sweeping and anti-submarine warfare near coasts, are being limited to 32 ships, amid concerns the warships would not survive against advanced Chinese weaponry.
7. - Marine Corps cuts will include further planned reductions from the current level of 190,000 Marines to 182,000 Marines, with a further cut to 175,000 after 2016.
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney reportedly said of the proposed cuts that they are “continuing on its path of unilateral disarmament that was started by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in April 2009…This action announced today will escalate the demise of our military unilaterally and we still have no strategy for defeating radical Islam after 9/11. This is very dangerous.”
Adding to those dangers is the perception that U.S threats cannot be taken seriously given that it’s ‘bark’ is considered worse than its ‘bite’. In a separate recent report by newsmax.com titled “…US in Global Retreat”, Harvard Professor Niall Ferguson has stated that the United States' "geopolitical taper" is having long-lasting, significant effects on the country's national security strategy, as world powers stop taking President Barack Obama's warnings seriously."The world remembers the red line that Mr. Obama once drew over the use of chemical weapons in Syria...and then ignored once the line had been crossed....but Obama's tapering, or promising consequences only when other nations step "over the line" is far more significant…when the president commented that "there will be consequences if people step over the line” in the raging battles between Ukrainian protesters in Kiev and government forces, nobody took the warning seriously.”
Ferguson goes on to quote Iraq, Afghanistan, the Arab Spring, Egypt, Libya and Syria as examples of costly indecision or delayed military action by the U.S.
America now seems to have become a ‘sitting duck’ firmly in the crosshairs of her enemies. And with the U.S. economy in dire straits and the debt position in crisis mode, it would seem that inability to continue funding the military adequately, is the No. 1 driving force behind the military cuts. However lowering defense spending becomes self defeating if America will not be able to defend herself when her enemies choose to strike again – for there will no longer be a United States to continue with the other ‘higher priorities’.
So if the U.S cannot protect itself, who will? There has never been a more important time than now for Christians worldwide to intercede in prayer for the United States of America and her allies.
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. “ 2 Chronicles 7:14
Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/March04/041.html#DIPjCZZYUmIc8Iaq.99
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