You're getting half your wish Roger.

[Requia ☣]

I almost forgot to tell you with all the other crap flying around.  NPR says Robert Gates has decided to slash the military budget, by cutting 47,000 personnel (he's apparently confident that we'll have won in Afghanistan by 2015 when this takes effect).  All carrier groups will stay in place, so you aren't getting that half, sorry.

[The Johnny]

But, but... carriers are like floating cities man, totally, woaaaaaaaaaa

[Requia ☣]

With nobody to operate or maintain them, I don't think they'll be floating much longer. 

[Cain]

Saw this in the news as well.  Utterly useless.  Getting rid of excess troops does not even begin to scratch the surface of the problems of the US military budget.

[Adios]

Saw this in the news as well.  Utterly useless.  Getting rid of excess troops does not even begin to scratch the surface of the problems of the US military budget.

No kidding, all that will do is add more unemployed to the ranks.

[Cain]

Hey, it keeps the cost of labour down.

[Adios]

You know as well as I that Defense Contractors are and will continue to be, HANDS OFF.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Hey, it keeps the cost of labour down.

[Jasper]

Our military is costing 4.6% of our GDP.

That is $649,520,000,000.

And that is terrible.

[/Lex Luthor]

We have 1,430,895 personnel in our army.  They're only cutting down by 3.3%.  And they're taking their sweet ass time about it.

This is not the radical move the press would have you believe.

[Requia ☣]

It's not really a budget cut at all.  We need those troops to do basic shit like transporting food and making sure there's clean water (we already don't have enough to that really).  As real troop numbers draw down, our reliance on substantially more expensive military contractors goes up.

[Jasper]

It would have been a lot simpler just to be like "okay, no war, but we're taking all this blood money anyway.  be happy". 

And I would.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I almost forgot to tell you with all the other crap flying around.  NPR says Robert Gates has decided to slash the military budget, by cutting 47,000 personnel (he's apparently confident that we'll have won in Afghanistan by 2015 when this takes effect).  All carrier groups will stay in place, so you aren't getting that half, sorry.

47,000 is a drop in the bucket, and it isn't where the money is in the first place.