https://truthout.org/articles/democrats ... ace-force/On Wednesday, California Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman filed a bill to abolish the U.S. Space Force, which he describes as “flagrantly” wasteful.
The Space Force was established by former President Donald Trump in 2019. Though it is the smallest branch of the Armed Forces, it’s been widely slammed by progressives for having 16,000 personnel and costing billions of dollars a year.
Huffman’s No Militarization of Space Act would axe the Space Force completely. “The long-standing neutrality of space has fostered a competitive, non-militarized age of exploration every nation and generation has valued since the first days of space travel. But since its creation under the former Trump administration, the Space Force has threatened longstanding peace and flagrantly wasted billions of taxpayer dollars,” Huffman said in a statement.
“Our mission must be to support the American people, not spend billions on the militarization of space,” Huffman continued, saying that money going toward the Space Force would be better spent fighting the climate crisis, COVID-19 and inequality in the U.S. Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin), Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Illinois) and Maxine Waters (D-California) joined Huffman in introducing the bill.
Before President Joe Biden was inaugurated, progressive lawmakers wrote a letter to the incoming administration asking officials to eliminate the Space Force, criticizing its formation for being unnecessary and for further militarizing the U.S, which is already immersed in a culture of endless war.
“Maybe, just maybe, we should make sure our people are not dying because they lack health insurance before we start spending billions to militarize outer space,” wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) in 2018.
The Space Force is tasked with gathering military intelligence from space and monitoring and transmitting GPS signals from satellites — but although the force has now been in existence for over a year, its function is not exactly clear as yet.
In 2018, retired astronaut Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) pointed out that the U.S. already had an arm of the military serving the same purpose as the Space Force: the Air Force Space Command, which was reorganized and reformed into its own branch.
A press release on the Huffman bill says that the formation of a separate Space Force “creat[ed] bureaucratic confusion and further waste.” The branch received $15.4 billion in funding for the fiscal year 2021, though it was taken from the Air Force budget. The bill directs the Space Force to be reabsorbed into the Air Force.
Critics worry that the Space Force’s existence as its own separate entity will eventually lead to further funding for the Defense Department. “Militarizing space is an unconscionable waste of billions of tax dollars, and it risks extending the worst mistakes of history to the final frontier by inviting conflict and escalation,” said Sean Vitka, senior policy counsel for Demand Progress. “Americans don’t want more wasteful military spending, which means Congress should pass the No Militarization of Space Act before the Space Force budget inevitably skyrockets.”
Political experts have speculated that it is unlikely Biden will support getting rid of the military branch, which has bipartisan approval. Meanwhile, Congress this week is set to authorize the largest budget the Pentagon has ever seen.
The problem is once a command is established it is almost impossible to get rid of it. When a new command is established this allows more officers to advance to flag rank.
https://ndupress.ndu.edu/Publications/A ... -military/There are approximately 900 Active-duty general/flag officers (GO/FOs) today of 1.3 million troops. This is a ratio of 1 GO/FO for every 1,400 troops. During World War II, an admittedly different era, there were more than 2,000 GO/FOs for a little more than 12 million Active troops (1:6,000). This development represents “rank creep” that does not enhance mission success but clutters the chain of command, adds bureaucratic layers to decisions, and costs taxpayers additional money from funding higher paygrades to fill positions. As end-strength fluctuates, force structure and strength projections for the next decade show the uniformed Services maintaining substantial excess capacity at senior ranks. Although historical numbers are inexact guides and future threats could radically change circumstances, the case for reduction is strong. The Department of Defense (DOD) should reduce the numbers, billets, and percent of GO/FOs in each Service to increase efficiency, streamline decisionmaking, achieve modest cost savings, and enhance accountability of decisionmaking.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/202 ... ar-ii.htmlThe Army now has more four-star generals serving on active duty than the Army and Air Force combined had during World War II.
Army Col. Christopher Coglianese, the chief of Future Operations at Army Futures Command, tweeted this month about the milestone, which the service has only hit once in the past.
"Last time we had that rank density was April 1945, when we had four five-stars and 13 four-stars," Coglianese said, adding pointing out that at that time the Air Force was known as the U.S. Army Air Force.
In addition to Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville and Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Joseph Martin, the Army has five four-stars running Army Forces Command, Army Training and Doctrine Command, Army Materiel Command, Army Futures Command and Army Pacific Command.
Currently, the Army also holds 10 four-star positions in the joint world starting with Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Three of those are newly confirmed joint positions. As of June, 30, there were 14 Army four-stars, according to Defense Department figures. But Gen. Gus Perna, who was the commander of Army Materiel Command (AMC), was confirmed by the Senate on July 2 as commander of Operation Warp Speed, the sweeping effort to accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.
Gen. Edward Daly took over the four-star slot at AMC.
The second new Army four-star to take over a joint position since June 30 was Gen. Daniel Hokanson, who was confirmed by the Senate on July 21 to command the National Guard Bureau. And Army Gen. James Dickinson was confirmed by the Senate on Aug. 6 to lead U.S. Space Command.
"It is true that the Army is at a high point; part of that is that the number of four-stars has been rising slowly over the last two decades," said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and a senior adviser for the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
One of those new Army four-star positions was added when Gen. Mike Murray was confirmed by the Senate on Aug. 20, 2018 to command the new Army Futures Command.
The Army has pulled ahead of the Air Force, "which seems to be the Army's main competitor," Cancian said.
"The Navy is perennially in third place, and periodically the Marine Corps surges up," Cancian said.
One reason for the Army's current dominance in the joint world is that the most recent conflicts had a heavy Army presence.
"We have been at war for two decades in Iraq and Afghanistan; those have been ground conflicts, so Army officers get more visibility and experience," Cancian said. "It's always a good sign when a service has a lot of four-stars because that means it is putting forward a level of talent and experience."
The trend is not likely to last too long, though, Cancian said.
"These things have cycles and the Army is at an upcycle now," Cancian said. "But I wouldn't be surprised if five years from now the Air Force and the Navy have a little uptick with the continuing focus on China."
This has been a problem since the 1960s with the Vietnam War buildup. Like any government bureaucracy it grows exponentially like a cancer. Ask anybody that been in or around the military and they will tell you the people that really run the service is the senior enlisted personnel.