Marine Manpower cuts

kinnem,

I won't enter this discussion, because I have nothing to contribute, but you should have added one of the many news articles about the growth in budgets for Special Operations Forces and Intelligence especially of the Contractor variety.
 
Just curious as to what others think. Who or what determines the right size for the Marine Corps and other branches of the military.

from the article

“The effect will be that there will not be sufficient Marines available to both be ‘America’s 9-1-1 force’ and to be ready for sustained ground combat,” said Steven Bucci, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense who warned that the decreased number of Marines will leave the force overstretched.

“Right now, the Marines are trying to go back to the role of floating about on the three ship Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG) missions forward deployed around the world,” Bucci said, referring to a joint Navy and Marine unit that performs sea-to-shore missions. “There was no ARG available to respond to Benghazi [terror attacks] because the Marines have had so many combat units fighting elsewhere

What is "America's 9-1-1 force?"

Why do we need three ARG?

What would the ARG's response to Benghazi have been?
 
Contrary to the Marine Corps assertion, it is not "America's 9-1-1".

Sorry kids.

It's 4x the size of the Coast Guard with a budget 16x the size.... it can take a big ole haircut.
 
Contrary to the Marine Corps assertion, it is not "America's 9-1-1".

Sorry kids.

It's 4x the size of the Coast Guard with a budget 16x the size.... it can take a big ole haircut.

With all due respect to the Coast Guard I think the difference in missions accounts for the size of the USMC budget. It does seem like there will be a lot of budgetary infighting between the services in the near future and I'm sure everyone gets a haircut.
 
With all due respect to the Coast Guard I think the difference in missions accounts for the size of the USMC budget. It does seem like there will be a lot of budgetary infighting between the services in the near future and I'm sure everyone gets a haircut.

Missons the Army can currently complete. The Marine Corps, in some ways redundant, with respect to missions (but we have a different tread for that).

The Marine Corps has the same issues with HUGE waste.

It's not something that resides only in the Marine Corps though. The entire DoD gobbles up FAR too much money. Now that would be a scary audit.

But we draw lines. If you thing there needs to be cuts to DoD, you're not patriotic. I'm conservative. There is far too much spending in the U.S. Not only entitlements, but DoD, DHS... some departments do more with less, and others just waste. Will it be painful, not only for the budget shops but also the personel? Absolutely. But it needs to happen.

As for comparing Marine Corps v. Coast Guard missions, I usually see that argument from people who know very little about the Coast Guard missions.
 
Missons the Army can currently complete. The Marine Corps, in some ways redundant, with respect to missions (but we have a different tread for that).

The Marine Corps has the same issues with HUGE waste.

It's not something that resides only in the Marine Corps though. The entire DoD gobbles up FAR too much money. Now that would be a scary audit.

But we draw lines. If you thing there needs to be cuts to DoD, you're not patriotic. I'm conservative. There is far too much spending in the U.S. Not only entitlements, but DoD, DHS... some departments do more with less, and others just waste. Will it be painful, not only for the budget shops but also the personel? Absolutely. But it needs to happen.

As for comparing Marine Corps v. Coast Guard missions, I usually see that argument from people who know very little about the Coast Guard missions.

Well, I can see this would be a fruitless discussion with the ad hominem attacks.. but I do agree there is waste everywhere and cuts need to happen everywhere.
 
Well, I can see this would be a fruitless discussion with the ad hominem attacks.. but I do agree there is waste everywhere and cuts need to happen everywhere.

I didn't see any ad hominem attacks.

For clarification, when I said "if you don't support"... was not directly specifically at you, but more to illustrate what is said when there need to be cuts to defense.

Cuts need to occur across the board. The Coast Guard has some things it could cut too. Modernization of a 50 year old fleet shouldn't be one of them. I think the MSRT and MSST programs are probably ripe for cuts.

That's a drop in the bucket for what SHOULD be cut in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.... and big daddy DoD.
 
I didn't see any ad hominem attacks.

For clarification, when I said "if you don't support"... was not directly specifically at you, but more to illustrate what is said when there need to be cuts to defense.

Cuts need to occur across the board. The Coast Guard has some things it could cut too. Modernization of a 50 year old fleet shouldn't be one of them. I think the MSRT and MSST programs are probably ripe for cuts.

That's a drop in the bucket for what SHOULD be cut in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.... and big daddy DoD.

My apologies then. I just read it the wrong way. I'm a little sick today so probably not thinking clearly. Of course there are those who say I never do.
As I said, I agree on the cuts. I'd like to start with the Prez's 1.6 mil to make a 20 minute speech in Nevada that could have just as easily been given in DC or nearby anyway. Doesn't buy much but you have to start somewhere.
 
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