For those of you that think we are geting smaller..read the facts....
In an Interview with Laura Ingram Sec. of Donald Rumsfeld answered a question about the base military closings and the reported downsizing of the military in this time of added need. He set the record straight.
Transcript:
Question: And on the issue of recruiting. I know we took a day pause, I guess in our recruiting. Was it just Army recruiting? I can't remember. But where are we now on that?
Rumsfeld: Well, first of all let me -- You mentioned downsizing. We're not downsizing. We're increasing the size of the Army and the Marines and have been by some 30,000 in the active force.
What we're doing is not downsizing, as such, what we're doing is making our capabilities more capable and more agile and more lethal.
Even though the press reports downsizing, the fact is that we've had substantial excess in infrastructure and the funds from that need to be put into capabilities that can do the country some good rather than being wasted in infrastructure that requires force protection and repair and a great deal of expense that doesn't really add to the military capability of the Department of Defense. So the process it's going through, the Base Closing and Realignment, is going to make our military defense, our military capabilities much greater than they were previously. We'll be more joint, we will have more of the funds the Department receives from the taxpayers of the United States focused on where they're needed.
OK for those of you that did not understand what he said, he said WE ARE NOT DOWNSIZING BUT INCREASING BY 30,000 TROOPS. Is that plain enough for you? The ,military is top heavy and by closing the bases and realigning the organization of the units you can actually increase the actual fighting forces. The guy/gal on the ground. If your troops are located in fewer places, it takes less to support them as you not send things all over the place. So to put the downsizing to rest, we are increasing the size of the Army and Marines, not decreasing.