Under the cost-cutting plan, the army will be down to 450,000 soldiers at the end of the 2017 budget year, even though in 2013 it argued in budgetary documents that going below 450,000 troops might mean it could not win a war, USA Today said.

On the one hand, hopefully this means fewer wars of adventure for the USA... On the other hand, the world has had a relatively peaceful period since the end of WW2 in part because of US military hegemony...

Thoughts?

OftenBen:

I have this utopian vision of being able to look back on this period of time as the tumultuous beginning of the end of powerful national militaries. In this utopia, military forces exist primariliy as a international coalition body tasked with the total elimination of groups like I-fuck-goats-sis, Boko Haram, etc. Maybe really antagonistic countries hold onto their (decreased) nuclear arsenal as a deterrent to other equally antagonistic countries, but by and large fissile material is used to build and supply reactors to start a massive desalination campaign anywhere it's needed.


posted 3212 days ago