Steve Buyer: “Mr. Chairman, I would ask Members to permit the eyes of their minds to see a greater vision here and to not be so narrow…”

“Mr. Chairman, I would ask Members to permit the eyes of their minds to see a greater vision here and to not be so narrow to think of this as Kosovo and Kosovo only. What concerns me most is that this is about funding a national military strategy. Sure, there are discussions of politics. Frankly, I do not mind that, because it is policy that drives all of this. The President's singular responsibility is to lay out the vital national security interests, then we come up with a military strategy as the means to enforce those. The President has one that is different, and I would not go along with it, but it is for us to transition out of a posture of global engagement in over 135 countries around the world and then fight and win nearly two simultaneous major regional conflicts. The open secret is we do not have the force structure today to do that. Let me share some facts with my colleagues about the size of the military today. In the Gulf War, we had 18 Army divisions, we had 24 Air Force tactical wings, and in the Navy ships and submarines we had 546 in 1990. Today, we are down to 10 divisions in the Army, 13 tactical wings in the Air Force, and a 315 ship Navy. That is a reduction in the Army by 250,000, in the Air Force 150,000, and in the Navy 200,000.”