Marines to cut four battalions, 12 air squadrons

[n2doc]

By David AlexanderPosted 2012/03/14 at 8:40 pm EDT

WASHINGTON, Mar. 14, 2012 (Reuters) — The Marine Corps said on Wednesday it would cut four infantry battalions and 12 flying squadrons over the next five years as it shrinks by 20,000 personnel to meet budget constraints and peacetime needs after more than a decade of war.


The biggest cuts would fall on Marine Corps bases in North Carolina, with Camp Lejeune and the adjacent New River air base losing 5,800 personnel and Cherry Point air base losing another 2,100. Three California Marine bases - Camp Pendleton, 29 Palms and Miramar - would lose a total of 6,000 personnel.

Lieutenant General Richard Mills, head of the Combat Development Command, said the reductions would take place over five years "on a slope as opposed to a cliff" and would take place through "natural attrition," giving Marines a chance to serve out the terms of their contracts.

"The impact on the individual Marine will mostly be through re-enlistments," Mills said. "We're obviously going to ... need fewer Marines, so re-enlistments will tighten up. A Marine is ... really going to have to be professionally qualified, personally qualified and really be top performers to find a slot to stay in the career force."

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http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre82e00y-us-usa-defense-marines/

[MineralMan]

1. Scaling down the military. Thanks, President Obama!

As I remember, this is what people on DU have been calling for for a long time. Good job!

[MadHound]

2. It's a start, barely, but a start none the less

The proposed $487 billion in cuts to the DoD budget amounts to 48.7 billion a year, roughly 7.8 % of the annual DoD budget. But the DoD budget is not the be all and end all of military spending. Total military spending is roughly twice what the DoD budget is, has been for a long while. This is accomplished by hiding a lot of military spending in other departments. For instance, the money used to maintain and upgrade our nuclear weapon fleet comes out of the Dept. of Energy budget, even though it is clearly military spending. Lots of this sort of inventive bookcooking is done with the total military budget. Another favorite tactic, the black budget of the military. Lots of military money is spent on unknown, and uncounted black budgets.

In total, our current military budget is 1.2 trillion, which means that 48.7 billion annual cut comes out to be four percent of annual military spending. Four percent. That's roughly the amount of money the military is allowed for inflation each year. Which means that for ten years, if we're lucky, we're going to, maybe, have slow or no growth in our military expenditures.

Not really cutting the size of our military, just reallocating resources and playing a numbers game to make it look like we're making cuts.

Get back to me when they start talking real cuts in the military budget, like 1/4, or better yet, cutting it in half. Then I might be impressed. This, meh, not so much.

[think]

3. Unfortunately just like companies it is the soldiers that get cut while the brass shows its balls

Military spending is still fucking insane and the corporate whores and the military elite who become shills for the whores will lose no ground.

[tjwash]

4. And we are still going to spend more than the rest of the world combined on the military.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. It's just a plan, until it happens

An invasion of Iran or Syria would reverse the decision in a big hurry.

If we're heaping the same number of missions on a reduced force, that will send the PTSD numbers soaring.