Andy: For Eric, assuming that Clinton did all that cutting,
did Rumsfeld et al. not know it before they started a
completely gratuitous, unnecessary war? Why did they not
prepare?
Eric: The short answer is that Bush decided he wanted to
have his tax cut for the rich. The US could not handle an
adequate military buildup and a supply-side tax cut.
Bush decided to give the tax cut (or tax postponement, if
you prefer) and use the army Clinton had left him... a
scaled-down version of our Cold War army with literally
fields full of equipment that had broken down, lacking the
funds to repair or maintain (and yet counted as part of our
"force").
Thus the so-called transformation projects were funded: the
Pentagon's Joint Readiness Training Center; UAVs like Global
Hawk; the military's global information grid; the Army's
Stryker brigades; the airborne laser; space-based radar; and
the conversion of Trident nuclear-missile submarines to
cruise-missile platforms.
As for last-minute military drafts, John Wager is right in
estimating about six months to field a drafted army. That's
much too slow in dealing with crises. It's a "come as you
are" world.
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