General Odierno: 245 billion dollars = two brigades ready for battle

The Defense budget of the United States is 664 billion dollars.  The Chief of Staff for the US Army, General Raymond Odierno, of hair-cutting fame, has stated that the Army has two brigades ready for battle, because of sequestration.  A brigade is a army force of about 3,000 to 4,000 men.  With 10 divisions, each consisting of 4 brigades, plus a few independent brigades, the Army has over 44 brigades.  Of the entire defense budget, the Army's portion is 245 billion dollars.  That's a lot of money to have two brigades, about 6,000 men, out of 44 brigades ready for battle.

When pressed, he acknowledged that did not include one brigade in South Korea, and one Airborne brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg that is always ready for service.  Nor was he including forces in Afghanistan, about 8 brigades serving in both combat and advisory roles.  So he's saying actually a dozen are in harm's way or ready for service, or about 40 to 50 thousand troops.  But a dozen brigades out of nearly 4 dozen is a low proportion for the most expensive and most powerful military in the world.

This brings two questions to mind.  In days of sequestration, every government organization is stating its mission is imperiled by funding cuts.  We read the spending cuts are eating away at valuable research and services.  So is Odierno giving the typical dark prophecy during budget cuts to draw some relief from Congress?  He says funding cuts are reducing training opportunities so fewer soldiers are ready for battle.  So are the other 30 brigades sitting around playing cards?   To address the budget cuts the army is reducing the number of personnel in the long term while members of congress fight for contracts for weapons the army doesn't want.

The other question has nothing to do with sequestration.  What is the 245 billion dollars the Army received getting spent on?  The US, the world's only superpower, spends more than any other nation on defense.  The nations with the second and third largest amount spent on defense, Russia and China, spend that amount on ALL of their military--Army, Navy, Air Force, nuclear arms, etc.  Where is our money going if only a little more than a third of the Army is ready for use?  About a quarter of the military budget is for pay and benefits of military personnel and families, including payments on their future health benefits.  A good portion of the remainder goes to procurement and maintenance of equipment.  Much is spent constructing facilities and researching new systems.  It is strange how, in times of stricter budgets, billions of dollars of equipment is being scrapped in Afghanistan because it isn't needed.

Defense spending is the sacred cow of the US.  Even though our might is greater than any other nation, there is a terror of not spending enough.  Perhaps General Odierno might learn from his predecessor, Dwight Eisenhower, about the place of the military.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.