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Analyst: Ground force cuts likely, avoid going too far
Fiscal pressures appear likely to force the U.S. Army and Marine Corps to get smaller, one defense analyst says — but he warns against cutting too deep.
Nathan Freier of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Army War College notes in a recent report that the “political and fiscal environment does not bode well for U.S. ground forces.”
What’s more, there is “little enthusiasm for devoting dwindling resources to large ground forces designed to prevail in the types of military engagements of the past 10 years,” Freier wrote in the report, according to a summary composed by consultancy Delex Systems.
The Obama administration's effort to focus America's foreign policy toward Asia is likely another driver of shrinking U.S. ground forces, Freier noted.
But the analysts warned Washington against shrinking the Army and Marine Corps by too much because “those who threaten U.S. interests still have a vote.”
“Every post-Cold War president has come into office vowing to avoid large, costly, foreign interventions requiring tens of thousands of ‘boots on the ground,’ only to have their hand forced by unforeseen events,” he concluded.
