Compared with a decade ago, the military is bigger, more closely connected to the CIA, more practiced at taking on terrorists and more respected by the American public. But its members also are growing weary from war, committing suicide at an alarming rate and training less for conventional warfare. The Pentagon’s leaders will have to adjust to a new era of austerity after a decade in which the defense budget doubled, to nearly $700 billion this year. With a beleaguered military corp – as Robert Gates put it shortly before he stepped down as defense secretary this summer – peace will bring its own problems.
But who is going to force them to adjust? Not the aipac-infested Congress, not mic-puppet president.
It will be interesting to see how the Imperial Legions react once the dollar becomes toilet paper.