Military is Subpar

July 16, 1998 Is the American military subpar? Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has said so in a letter to President Clinton. He cites problems ranging from equipment shortages to overworked military personnel to problems with recruiting and retaining key personnel. Senator Lott believes that we have cut the military too much and deployed them too frequently.

The administration blames missed recruiting goals on a good economy, but Senator Lott believes we need to raise salaries and points to the growing gap between civilian and military pay. The Army reduced this year’s recruiting goal by 12,000, while the Navy will fall short 7,200.

Recent Congressional hearings exposed a number of problems. One staff report this past winter by the Senate Budget Committee revealed “extremely serious” readiness problems in the Army. Brigades showed up at the service’s two main live-firing training posts lacking enough infantry troops and mechanics.

Only 36 percent of Air Force pilots with nine years of service agreed to stay on, down from 60 percent two years ago. One report quoted pilots as saying, “All of the politically correct, brain-washing, propaganda and white-laboratory-mouse training should be purged from the curriculum.”

The problem is simple. The military has shrunk 40 percent since the Cold War ended, but it has been deployed in numerous (and questionable) peace-keeping operations around the world. The military has been cut too much and been deployed too often. It’s time to reverse these trends.

I’m Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries, and that’s my opinion.