http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=37070Dempsey complicit in destroying the military
August 13th, 2013
Chief Tango sends us a link to Stars & Stripes which reports that Marty Dempsey is doing his damnedest to make sure that military service costs service members more than it’s worth;
He called the current retirement system unsustainable.
“Manpower costs are becoming overwhelming,” he said. “They will overwhelm modernization and training if we are not careful.”
The general said he doesn’t want to be known for “taking a machete” to servicemembers’ paychecks, but, “I don’t want you being the most well-compensated military on the planet that doesn’t train,” referring to other possible cost saving measures.
If you are a pilot, you join the Air Force to fly, he said. “And if I got to park that [plane] … how long are you going to hang around?”
Well, if there’s no one around to park that plane, how is that going make us ready, Marty?
So, Marty’s solution is to make retirement at 30 years with mandatory sign off at 40 years. And he wants to make the Thrift Savings Plan the retirement vehicle. Currently, the services don’t match TSP contributions, so basically troops will be funding their own retirements. And, thinking about the debate to privatize Social Security, which is essentially what Marty wants by forcing the troops to invest their retirement money in markets (which I don’t think is a bad idea, but hold on…), why are the same people who complained about Bush’s plan so willing to foist essentially the same thing on members of the military?
“Military compensation is the primary tool by which we induce people to serve in an all-volunteer force,” he said. “So any changes should be made based on the best available evidence of how it will affect the force.”
Yeah, right, like all of the other crap they’ve been forcing down the throats of the troops in the past few years. The only thing that matters to this crowd is how it will affect their next OER and how pleased their political masters will be when they turn the military into a useless tool which charges into the slaughter for them.
All of the training funds in the world won’t help a hollow force. And we’ve already seen that training, along with personnel costs were the first cuts before they even mentioned cutting the flag officer billets and cutting their staffs. So don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining, Marty.
