I'm a retired veteran, having spent 26 years in service. And the conclusion I've come to is all you have to do is follow the money trail. Look at where the bulk of defense spending is going to. Dig around in that stratospheric realm and see how much corruption, duplicative waste and "unintended" cost overruns sap defense dollars away from the troops who actually fight, get maimed and/or die on the line.
Look at how many $billions got sucked right out of the defense budget from graft, kickbacks, cheating, overcharging, underservicing and obscene amounts of $$$ just simply disappearing into the quagmire of the fog of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Look at the obscene profits companies like Halliburton etc. made/is making from those wars.
As Senseamp mentioned, if it weren't for all the corrupt profiteering and waste that went on in our middle east adventures pre-Obama, our military would be in a much better condition than it is now. This factor can't just be brushed aside and dismissed because it doesn't fit neatly into your agenda.
I've overheard on occasion how much military resources get stolen, sold on the black market and then resold back to the military because of mysterious critical inventory shortages while serving in Vietnam. Iraq and Afghanistan can't be any different. There's many reasons why the military is suffering at the moment, but you have to agree that entering into a completely unnecessary years long war in Iraq has to be the main reason the military is in its present state of "un"-readiness.
Simply laying it all at Obama's feet in an attempt to denigrate him and his party is too simple a feat for all the wrong reasons IMO.
I agree that the military isn't the most efficient machine in terms of money well spent but what federal entity is? There hasn't been a battle, war or contingency since the Battle of Lexington and Concord that has accurately accounted for the money spent in the ''fog of war" through poor records or corruption.
Laying it all on Obama's feet...well, I certainly can't lay it all at his feet that is true. The erosion of our military capabilities started well before his administration. Congress is obviously a big player as well. Whether it was the war in Iraq that was the prime reason behind the erosion is debatable but what I'm more concerned with is how the recovery is achieved or not achieved as is the current trend.
That said he has continued that trend with a passion and with some unique twists of his own that are really alarming. It's his particular enthusiasm for that effort that I find worrisome. What I can lay at his feet is his administration's record to date of comparing a soldier to a mail man in terms of the benefits that should be given, even though promised, for what most never have to experience. I can lay at his feet the constant drive to miraculously attempt to cure an ailing economy by raping the military of all of it's worth without the hope of ever repairing, modernizing or even staying sideways in the ability to just operate administratively let alone fight a major conflict.
In response to the money trail....the banks love him, as they really should. His economic agenda has put this country in more debt than the DOD or any war right or wrong ever has. Again, that's another topic altogether but history will and actually already has a place for his agenda regarding our economy.
And the last topic of which all should be concerned, especially those who swore to defend the Constitution, from enemies foreign and domestic is the rationalization of a number of contradictory bills supported by and sponsored by a man who signs into public law under the pretence that the Constitution isn't relevant in this day and age.
My agenda? I don't know if its an agenda more than a right. I'd like to be able to sleep at night knowing that my country is safe and will remain that way. I'd like to know that I can exercise and maintain my rights as an American citizen without being deemed a terrorist or threat. It's not so much about laying it on Obama, one man, as being concerned about the precedents being set by his policies/agendas now and into the future....IMO.
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