The Pentagon

[Jake]

Hugh shows his lack of reasoning again.

[Jake]

The embassy bombings did not require two heavy divisions to respond to them.

[Jake]

Why can you not just order the military to redeploy home in the interim? All the Senate will do is order the sale/closure of military bases and probably pass an omnibus bill covering the redeployment home.

[Jake]

Not smart either True Dem. We need only to maintain certain infrastructure (Aviano, Ramstein, etc.), not all of our troop bases. Naval facilities should, of course, be maintained, though naval committment can be lessened.

[Jake]

Which troops? I'm of the opinion that we should maintain our full forces in the Balkans, while withdrawing the combat units from elsewhere in Europe, save a few air units in the UK.

[Jake]

All our heavy combat troops in Western Europe are doing now that they couldn't do in similar US bases is prop up the local economies near their bases. That's pretty much it. If you make the argument that we should maintain them for strategic deployments, why not just maintain the equiptment, meaning that they are only a six hour flight from Europe.

[Jake]

WTF No

[Jake]

That's not exactly a compromise. It's more like saying we'll do what I want, but then do something different with the troops afterward.

[Jake]

It's the retraining of 60,000 heavy troops into elite special forces light infantry that gets me the most.

[Jake]

Maintaining air units in the UK, our units in Italy and the Balkans, and our base in Incirlik as well as maintaining bases like Ramstein to support fast deployment is what should be done. There's no need to arbitrarily cut 40% or 10% of troops.

[Jake]

Yes, maintaining our air/naval bases in Spain, Portugal, and Iceland is beneficial, though we have no units (and haven't really since the 60s) in France.

[Jake]

Look, folks.  Last time I checked we aren't facing the same kind of threats that we did in the Cold War era. 

No, but should we then convert all heavy units into "Special" Forces?

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So, you think we should retrain soldiers who may now operate a tank and send them to Ranger School?

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Then I hope you're prepared for major flunk outs because without lowering standards, there are going to be an enormous number that cannot pass.

[Jake]

Anyway, I was saying retrain heavy infantry, nor Armored Units.

Anymore, there is hardly a difference between retraining Bradley crews and their squads or a tank crew.