Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has unveiled the Pentagon's plans to cut enlistment in the United States Army to its smallest size since the onset of the Second World War.
Hagel's five-year budget plan, announced yesterday, would also close military bases and reduce certain benefits. Officials are calling it the first Pentagon budget to aggressively distance itself from the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The proposal comes one week before President Barack Obama submits his 2015 budget plan to Congress.
Al Jazeera reports:
Under the Hagel plan—which Congress could change—the active-duty Army would shrink to between 440,000 and 450,000 soldiers, from its current 522,000. That would make it the smallest since just before the U.S. entered World War II.
Army leaders have said for months that they expect their numbers would drop as the nation prepares to end its combat role in Afghanistan this year.
Hagel's outline won't necessarily be the death-knell for current American militaristic intervention practices, though. The proposal counters some of its downsizing by raising special operations enlistment to 70,000, thereby aligning with present trends favoring fluidity over extended foreign occupations.
Please consider supporting our work.
I hope you found this article important. Before you leave, I want to ask you to consider supporting our work with a donation. In These Times needs readers like you to help sustain our mission. We don’t depend on—or want—corporate advertising or deep-pocketed billionaires to fund our journalism. We’re supported by you, the reader, so we can focus on covering the issues that matter most to the progressive movement without fear or compromise.
Our work isn’t hidden behind a paywall because of people like you who support our journalism. We want to keep it that way. If you value the work we do and the movements we cover, please consider donating to In These Times.
Alex Wolff is a Spring 2014 editorial intern.
