Iran and North Korea Are Waiting in the Wings for the U.S. to Downsize Its Military: Cutting 500,000 Troops Will Lead into the Next Ground War, as History Has Already Shown Us

Every time an Administration cuts the United States armed forces, and focuses in on increasing air assets, the decision bites us hard and we end up in another land war.

That’s been the pattern since Truman downsized the U.S. military, following the end of World War II.  We went from an Army of eight million soldiers to an Army of 500,000 under arms.  The Soviets were emboldened enough to blockade Berlin, North Korea was emboldened enough to invade South Korea, then China was emboldened enough to enter the Korean War after most of North Korea was overrun by U.S. and U.N. troops.  This pattern was repeated again and again when a U.S. President would cut troops in favor of air superiority. 

We are definitely in danger of repeating history.  President Obama wants more unmanned drones instead of ground troops, but drones cannot maintain the peace as effectively as a powerful ground force can.

North Korea, Iran and Venezuela have been emboldened over the last ten years because we were fighting two major wars at the same time, and much of our military strength was involved in occupying Afghanistan and Iraq.  Before that, they were afraid of the American military, but they’re still in the mind-set that our military is too worn down to take them on at the moment. 

Those nations mentioned should be afraid of the U.S. military and where they might strike next.  Instead, if we cut the size of the Army and the Marines, we may end up fighting another ground war against an enemy who thinks they can win.  Especially North Korea.

They can make cuts elsewhere instead of getting rid of our ability to fight two major wars simultaneously.  And these kinds of cuts should not be made while we still have 97,000 troops in combat in Afghanistan.