Odierno renews call for more troops

Army chief Gen. Ray Odierno said during a Fort Carson visit he wants 490,000 soldiers in uniform to meet the service's worldwide commitments -- 40,000 more than current cost-cutting plans.

The service's top general said he needs the extra troops because ongoing trouble in Iraq, tensions with Russia and other commitments on five continents.

Budgets passed by Congress require the Army to reach 450,000 troops by 2017, down from a wartime high of 520,000 soldiers on active duty.

Experts noted that the Army declined to specify where about half of the reductions would come from, which some say demonstrated Odierno's reluctance to slim the Army.

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/odierno-renews-call-for-more-troops-1.359548

I hate to say it but I don't see much of an outcry among either elected politicians (except for a small handful) or the American people at large for an increased military, particularly the Army whose number s have declined so dramatically (much more than the Marines) in recent years.

I'm going by beer-foggled memory only, but as I recall in about 1990 the Army had 850,000 troops & the Marine Corps about 200,000. Now, it under 500,000 for the Army and around 190,000 for the Marines. I know there's more reliance in the reserves & guard than there used to be, but this is simply inadequate. For a nation with so many commitments globally (for which the global order generally benefits greatly, I might add), the size of the armed forces are not adequate.

It's time for limited conscription and increased spending and, if need be, more tax revenue to pay for it.

This is a serious question: How many jobs done by civilian contractors today (medical care, food service, sorting mail, maintenance, intel, etc.) were done by uniformed military personnel prior to Desert Storm? And how do those numbers figure into "troop numbers"?

This is an excellent article, but it does not answer that question:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/cutting-troops-but-letting-the-civilian-army-swell-1437692640