The War Within the U.S. Army
The War Within the U.S. Army by Mark Thompson, Time Magazine. (Excerpt, subscription required for full article.)
… As Washington winds down two long and expensive wars (one, in Afghanistan, now entering its 13th year), unpleasant choices are the order of the day at the Pentagon, where the 10% cut required by sequestration is already inflicting budgetary pain.
But nowhere is the challenge as desperate — or the bureaucracy so resistant to change — as it is in the Army. It has 534,000 active-duty troops today and is trying to hang on to 490,000 by 2015. But deeper cuts look likely, and many experts believe the service could shrink to 390,000 by 2023. The Army's core mission is anyone's guess in an era of pilotless drones and spooky commandos. But its generals are slow to face the new reality…
