The Pentagon plans to reduce troops... but

Néstor García Iturbe

30/07/2014

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In February of this year, as he was presenting the budget for the fiscal year of 2015, the Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel announced a reduction in troops throughout the total of US military personnel in the distinct branches of service, a move that for many was seen as positive on the part of the Obama administration.

Nevertheless, we cannot rest with a mistaken analysis of this decision. The United States will continue with its objective of maintaining global military supremacy, to maintain its presence on different continents, but under a less ostentatious structure, with a more agile force and with high tech weapons.

The fact is that the Pentagon has changed the nature of wars and the tactics to be employed in them. In the future the US will not be involved in invasions on a grand scale, or the occupation of countries, as happened in Iraq or Afghanistan, but rather will involve themselves in special operations on a smaller scale, in the wars that may arise in the future.

In his speech, Hagel pointed out that the budget proposes a reduction in the number of personnel in each of the military departments, including civilian personnel. The reduction will be around 13 per cent, so that from a total of 522,000 troops the level will fall to some 440,000, which will be the lowest number of troops in the armed forces since the US engaged in World War II. Nevertheless, the Special Operations forces will be increased by some six per cent, reaching approximately 69,000 troops.

As part of the proposal, in addition to the reduction in troops, there are plans to withdraw from service those military vehicles that are now obsolete and of little use for the new plans. In many cases it is a question of modernizing war technology, with greater automation and above all more reliance on equipment that can be controlled from a long distance, including land-based, airborne and naval equipment.

The main research programmes at present financed by the Defence Department, under the supervision of the Defence Agency for Research and Development, have a total budget of more than ten billion dollars, and focus on the development of robotics, automation, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, satellite communications and other scientific and technical developments.

The Naval Forces plan to maintain their eleven aircraft carriers and their escort fleet. Experiments are already underway with drones launched from submarines and able to land on aircraft carriers, which together with the modernization of various warships would result in a more powerful Navy.

Another force that is looking at modernization rather than reduction is the Air Force, which will eliminate obsolete equipment and replace it with fifth-generation arms and navigation systems, including the utilization of drones for a number of tasks, including the destruction of enemy targets.

Wars will still be a necessary part of the so-called “National Security of the United States” in order to sustain their “interests” in other countries and to guarantee that the Military Industrial Complex can continue to obtain multimillionaire profits; however, the Pentagon foresees engagement in a different kind of war.

Troops from other countries, including Latin America, will be trained to invade other countries, under the direction of the United States, with a minimum of US personnel. This will guarantee that the body bags will return to the countries that deploy troops, rather than to Washington.

There will be a maximum use of automated arms, robots and weapons directed by remote control. Losses will be less among human beings and more of equipment, whose replacement will be the task of arms producers that will increase their profits each time equipment is destroyed.

As one can easily see, the simple reduction of troops does not imply a philosophical change in the goal of US hegemony, nor will it involve a retreat from the arms race, but rather the ratification of their project to obtain global domination, as proclaimed in the Manifest Destiny doctrine.

(Translated by Jordan Bishop for ALAI).

- Dr. Néstor García Iturbe is the editor of the electronic bulletin El Heraldo (Cuba).

sarahnes@cubarte.cult.cu

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