New Defense Secretary Hagel to Finish Obama’s Gutting of US Military

Posted 7 hours ago by Dave Jolly

From Godfather Politics

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President Barack Obama has spent the past couple of years gutting and weakening our military. He pushed to allow gays to openly serve which caused some military personnel who held on to their Christian values to resign. Then Obama pushed his gay rights initiative onto military chaplains, forcing them to perform same-sex unions and marriages, even though it was against their religion. Failure to do so could result in strong disciplinary action up to being court martialed. Obama is now pushing to extendbenefits to the unwed gay partners of military personnel but not to the unwed opposite sex partners of military personnel.

Obama then attacked the retirement program for the military making it less desirable for people to give the country twenty or more years of their lives. Instead of being able to retire after twenty years and draw one’s pension at the age of 38 and older, Obama is pushing to make a change that so they cannot draw their military retirement until 67 years of age. A number of people coming out of the military after 20 years have a hard time finding appropriate work and rely on that well deserved pension to help them survive, but that doesn’t matter to Obama.

Troop and weaponry reduction was next on Obama’s list. Through his edict, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta began reducing the number of active military personnel in all branches. Ships, planes and other equipment have also been reduced in numbers.

Obama has also been weeding out those top military leaders that refuse to say that they would shoot fellow Americans if ordered to do so. They are being turned down for promotions or being moved to other non-essential positions, both of which are career killers in the military.
With North Korea posturing for a nuclear strike, one has to be concerned over the fact that Obama has reduced the number of nuclear weapons and is pushing for further reductions. In 2010, the US nuclear arsenal numbered nearly 2,500. Since that time, Obama has reduced it to 1,700 and has been pushing for a further reduction to take the numbers to 1,000. That’s a 60% reduction in just the few couple years.

Supposedly due to military budget cuts and the sequester, the Navy has delayed indefinitely the refueling and reconditioning of two air craft carriers. The last I heard, there were 5 aircraft carriers docked in the US.

Also a result of the sequester that Obama created and signed into law is the cutting of tuition assistance to active military personnel. This has been a large draw to get young men and women to enlist, but without it, those enlistment figures are sure to drop.

Military pay is not the greatest. Many families of enlisted personnel have to have the spouse work or take government assistance in order to survive. According to a current military pay grade chart, a new enlistee makes a whopping $1,516.43 a month. After graduating basic, serving one year and moving up a pay grade, that jumps up to a staggering $1,699.63 a month or $20,395.56. A sergeant with 2 years of service has a base pay of only $2,081.22 a month or $24,974.64 a year.

According to the HHS, the poverty level for a family of 3 is $19,090 a year and a family of 4 is $23,050. Active military personnel make just enough to keep them barely above the official federal poverty level, but that may be changing if newly appointed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gets his way.

Speaking at the National Defense University on the sequestration and budget cuts, Hagel said:

“[F]iscal realities demand another hard look at personnel – how many people we have both military and civilian, how many we need, what these people do, and how we compensate them for their work, service, and loyalty with pay, benefits and health care.”
 

Some in attendance took Hagel’s words to indicate that he is considering possible pay cuts and reductions in benefits for military personnel and civilian contractors. For many young people today, the low military pay sometimes prevents them from enlisting because they know they and their family can’t survive on that little of an income. Such a move on the part of Hagel would further erode our already weakened military.

America once took pride in our military power. It was that mightiness of our troops and weapons that kept us from attack from other nations, but not terrorists. But our might is gone and our military is no longer as formidable as it once was and we can owe much of that Barack Obama and his puppets that have and are serving as the Secretaries of Defense.

Do we have the capability to fight a nuclear war with North Korea? Many say yes, but I have my doubts. Our defenses have been weakened to a dangerous point of which could end up being fatal to our nation. I pray I’m wrong.