You could say the Pentagon is doing a good thing by getting rid of the fat -- the fatheads at the top of that horribly overweight bureaucracy. Or you could just join the huge sigh of relief many are experiencing as a result. Finally!
The word "peace" is even mentioned -- rudely! -- in the faces of Our Glorious Leaders of Our Glorious Defense Industry!
Pentagon officials said they have eliminated 27 jobs for generals and admirals since March, the first time the Defense Department has imposed such a reduction since the aftermath of the Cold War, when the collapse of the Soviet Union prompted the military to downsize.
The cuts are part of a broader plan to shrink the upper ranks by 10 percent over five years, restoring them to the their size when the country was last at peace, before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. ...WaPo
The money saved is minimal. But the cuts are a start, and a recognition that too many bosses make for lousy decisions.
The changes are projected to save only a modest amount of money, but defense officials said they are symbolically important as the Pentagon adjusts to an era of austerity. The Obama administration proposes to squeeze $450 billion from defense budgets over a decade. An additional $500 billion in cuts will be triggered if Congress cannot agree on a deficit-reduction plan in the next year.
Thinning the ranks of generals and admirals is also necessary to make the military more nimble, said Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. ...WaPo
The specific cuts at the top date back to Gates' pre-Panetta Pentagon.
In ordering the cuts, Gates said the military had succumbed over the years to “brass creep,” by adding a disproportionate number of jobs at the top. The number of four-star generals and admirals today, for instance, is roughly the same as in 1971, during the Vietnam War, even though the number of active-duty troops has shrunk by half.
The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps are all expected to continue shrinking because of budget cuts, the end of the war in Iraq and the Obama administration’s planned withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Leon E. Panetta, the current defense secretary, backs Gates’s plan, according to Pentagon press secretary George Little. ...WaPo
