Zakariyah and O'Hanlon want to cancel soldiers' retired pay.

 
FZ, the Indian born darling of the foreign policy clique, and O'Hanlon, a defense budget analyst (accountant) have published editorials in the last two days advocating defense budget cuts as part of the solution to the financial and economic decline of the United States.

Fair enough, but what is not fair is that both want to carve some of those defense cuts out of the "hide" of armed forces retirees.  These two men, innocent as they are of any personal knowledge of military life, want the government to renege on promises made to lure soldiers into 20 year service careers.  The promises made by the government obviously mean nothing to them.  They are well off.  Soldiers who served for 20 years typically are not.  Combat arms people have not been trained or experienced to do anything personally profitable in civilian life.  There is little civilian market for armored cavalrymen, airborne infantrymen or cannoneers.  There are markets for the skills of personnel specialists, pay clerks, medical corpsmen, air traffic controllers, etc.  Nevertheless, in the Zakariyah/O'Hanlon scheme of values a 40 year old infantry sergeant who has not been seriously wounded in combat should leave military service to go find a job as a stock boy or yardman.  Medical care?  He can take his children to the emergency room at a civilian hospital if they are ill. 

 What great thinkers!  How about this as an alternative?  Let's change our foreign policy and abandon foreign "adventurism" as a way of life.  Let's reduce the size of the conventional ground forces to fit that new policy.  Let's grandfather the people whom we promised a good life in return for their lives and let's think about ending 20 year non-disability retirements from the armed forces. 

Zakariyah had the brilliant idea few weeks back that he wanted to re-structure the federal government to his taste.  Perhaps he should restrict himself ro discussing foreign affairs.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-defense-spending-should-be-cut/2011/08/03/gIQAsRuqsI_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/yes-cut-defense-spending--but-by-how-much/2011/08/04/gIQATLq5uI_story.html

 

Comments

[Mark Logan]

@John and GZC,

I see the explosion in healthcare costs cropping up once again in that awful Pentagon piece. It's destroying Medicare as well. Our small business hiring, our big business international competitiveness... Keeps cropping up again and again, and we could cut that in half by adopting any of the systems now in use by about a dozen industrialized countries.

I would append that publication, and Fareeds, with this:

http://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Rotten-Strategies-Reliability-Management/product-reviews/0804759960

[Stanley E. Henning]

Yes, I thought Zakaria was OK discussing certain policy issues, but this is shocking. He should stay away from yapping about human affairs if he knows what is good for him.

[William R. Cumming]

It would be of interest to know what top ten decisions these two facile commentators think they have made impacting the lives and fortunes of others? Talk is cheap!

[Jane]

Bait and switch.

Welcome to Wisconsin.

Same methodology -- citizens are induced to take job less well remunerated partly on the grounds it provides safety and security due to pensions and health care. Once they have served, 're-open' the contract.

The greater wrong is being done to the military since they put their lives and sanity on line for our country, but the process is the same.

[J]

GZC, Colonel,

Here are those who comprise the Defense 'Business Board'.

Examine their bios in detail. Most of them look well to do, here's the list for your purview:

http://dbb.defense.gov/members.shtml
The Members

The Board Members:

John B. Goodman, Chairman
Mark H. Ronald, Vice Chairman
Fernando A. Amandi
Owsley Brown II
Pierre Chao
Bonnie R. Cohen
Patrick Gross
Mel M. Immergut
David H. Langstaff
Lon Levin
Philip A. Odeen
Arnold L. Punaro
Richard V. Spencer
Robert L. Stein
Robert I. Toll
Atul Vashistha
Kevin E. Walker
Joseph R. Wright
Jack C. Zoeller
John Hamre, Chairman, Defense Policy
Board (Ex Officio) *
Paul Kaminski, Chairman, Defense
Science Board (Ex Officio) *

The Board's Observers, Senior Fellows, and Consultants:
Observers

Jeff Zients, Deputy Director, OMB *
Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General, GAO*

The Senior Fellows

Neil F. Albert
Barbara Barrett
Denis A. Bovin
Frederic W. Cook
Madelyn Pulver Jennings
James V. Kimsey
William R. Phillips
Dov S. Zakheim

The dbb consultants

Michael Carns
Vernon Clark
John O'Connor
Leigh Warner

[Fred]

Pat,

The story of Chief Joseph and his people are a tragedy, however I believe "I have not yet begun to fight!" is more appropriate at this time - especially as we are fighting royalty - 'economic royalists' I believe is what FDR called them.

[VietnamVet]

Colonel,

If you start putting the dots together, military pay and pensions are where the money is. The wealthy are not going to take a haircut on their bad debt so to keep solvent they are going after Social Security and any dedicated source of funds to raid.

Netflix finally shipped me the “Inside Job” DVD. It is a good summary of the 2008 Crash. The financial system and both political parties are in bed together. America is now corrupt to its core. Not one person who caused the current financial catastrophe has been indicted.

The Debt Crisis was all theatre and propaganda. The S & P Downgrade of Americans Credit Rating to AA+ is BS. They made a 2 Trillion Dollar Error in their calculations. Deregulation and their AAA ratings of Credit Default Swaps are the direct cause of the Crash.

So why is there all the theater and fear mongering? It is Shock Capitalism:
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-a-budget/175641-shock-doctrine-and-the-debt-limit

[Tyler]

Byron,

Is the media going to feed the children of the soldier class?

Is it going to clothe them? Take care of their ills?

The omnipotence of the media is, IMHO, greatly overrated by those who seem to be happy to shrug their shoulders and do nothing.

When the bullets do start flying, I believe it will be the talking heads who will be the first ones against the wall.

[steve]

Zakaria is a smarmy little azz cut from the same elite cloth as those who will never depend on a pension, or SS or medicare to see them through.

@tyler

As a southerner born and bred but now an Iowa resident, let me say that much the same holds true of rural Midwesterners.

Rural Iowans are as expendable as rural Georgians to the elite.

[bth]

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/07/military-dod-panel-calls-for-radical-retirement-overhaul-072511/