America Disarms

A decade on from 9/11, the U.S. Army is set to considerably shrink once again. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel plans to reduce the number of men and women in the army to 444,000, which would be the lowest level since the beginning of World War II.

The Air Force is also apparently set to dispose of an entire fleet of aircraft purchased in the Cold War. Hagel’s proposal is an initial aggressive push to comply with new budget cuts and to take the armed forces into a new military age. The Pentagon wanted to release the plans on Monday but the New York Times had already reported some details beforehand.

The shrinkage of the land forces in particular takes account of Obama’s political priorities. Before he was elected in 2008, he promised to end America’s military adventures. Since then he has brought all U.S. soldiers home from Iraq; the withdrawal from Afghanistan should be more or less complete by the end of the year. The budget projection from the Pentagon clearly bears the handwriting of Hagel, who has been defense secretary for a year and is considered a longstanding critic of the enthusiasm for military interventions.

After the Withdrawal Come the Budget Cuts

The force of U.S. Army numbered 6 million men at the end of World War II. During the Vietnam War, it still had 1.6 million men. After the end of the Cold War, the number of soldiers fell, until it rose again during the so-called “war on terror” and it reached its peak in 2011, with nearly 570,000 men and women.

In this age of highly technicalized combat missions with drones, guided missiles, elite units and cyberattacks, the Pentagon is redefining the idea of troop strength. Fewer men and women will serve in the Army, but they will be better equipped and better trained.

The word from the Pentagon is that the U.S. will still be able to decisively beat any enemy with the target number of 444,000 soldiers in the army. This would, however, make it difficult in the future to occupy countries for long periods of time, or even, as was the case recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, two countries at the same time.

Republicans Fear a Weakened Reputation

Hagel’s plans will probably be immediately criticized, particularly by Republicans. The foreign policy hawks in the party have long accused Obama of giving off an impression of weakness: a smaller U.S. Army could encourage enemies to challenge the U.S.

The Pentagon does not really have any other choice, however, since the budget sequestration hits the military particularly hard, and a bigger army after two wars is hard to justify. Obama and Congress have at last agreed on a defense budget of $496 billion per year. The amount may decrease further in the future.

As well asas Along with the Army, the Air Force is also to makeseeks savings and apparently will give up its fleet of A-10 fighter jets. These machines were once designed, in the case of a possible invasion of Soviet forces, to destroy Soviet tanks in Western Europe. Today a similar scenario is considered unlikely. Instead, the Pentagon prefers to invest in the development of new machines, like the controversial fighter jet F-35, which is considerably more expensive than planned.