It wasn't a lie its very easily verified. Where not talking about something obscure but rather how many divisions the army has. Even if you think Cheney lies most of the time (and I certainly do not) you would do well to check your facts before calling something he says a lie.
"Bush administration officials figured 12 army divisions were needed just to preserve the international status quo after the Cold War. The Clinton administration reduced that number to 10. "
ceip.org
"Defense News reports that, during the past decade, the U.S. Navy has
decommissioned, sold to foreign navies, or scrapped more than 200 ships. "The
fleet now is projected to have about 305 ships.... But while the number of ships and
submarines for missions has declined markedly, service officials say, the missions
those forces are being called on to fulfill remain the same or are increasing."
It is not just the Navy that has been cut back. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) has
summarized some of the slashing that has taken place. He points out that, under
President Clinton, the military as a whole has shrunk 40 percent. "Since 1990, Air
Force fighter wings have shrunk from 36 to 20. Navy ships have dropped from
almost 600 at the height of the Reagan buildup to close to 300 now. Spare-part,
equipment and readiness problems abound. Clinton killed the Strategic Defense
Initiative program, vetoed missiles defenses, and clings feverishly to the outdated
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which is keeping America undefended against growing
missile threats." Moreover, Army divisions have been cut from 18 to 10."
thenewamerican.com
"To set the stage, Mr. Speaker, we have come down, we have slashed defense and cut down on our forces dramatically since Desert Storm. We have cut from 18 Army divisions that we had in 1991 to only 10
today. That is, incidentally and coincidentally, the same number of Army divisions we had when Korea was invaded.
We have gone from 24 to only 13 fighter air wings, so we have cut our air power almost in half under the Clinton Administration. And we have cut our naval vessels from 546 to 333, about a 40 percent cut in naval vessels. "
house.gov
"At the Republican National Convention last week, retired Gen.
Norman Schwarzkopf noted that he had far more Army divisions to
call on when he was planning for the Persian Gulf War.
At that time, there were 18 Army divisions, and a total of 2.2
million people in the U.S. armed forces. "
cnn.com
"Q. How much of the military has been dismantled since Bill Clinton took
office?
— T.H., Adrian, MI
A. According to a study by Mark Helprin of the Hudson Institute, the following are
gone from our military: four aircraft carriers; 121 surface combatants and attack
submarines (plus the support that normally accompanies such a force); 13 ballistic
missile submarines (with more than 3,000 nuclear warheads on 232 missiles); 500
intercontinental ballistic missiles; 232 strategic bombers; 20 air wings of the Navy
and Air Force (about 2,000 combat aircraft); two Reserve Army divisions; eight
Regular Army divisions; 293,000 Reserve soldiers; and 709,000 Regular Army
soldiers. Had an enemy inflicted such losses, it would have been termed a military
disaster."
thenewamerican.com
"From the deck of the USS New Jersey, Schwarzkopf
said, "As of 1999, the number of fighting army
divisions ready for war had shrunk to less than half of
what they were before Desert Storm. ... Meanwhile,
enlistment targets fell short again this past year. There
are re-enlistment problems as well." "
stp.uh.edu
"First, the Clinton administration is not, I repeat, not, increasing the defense budget. The Clinton administration has cut defense since they took over in 1992 by $102 billion below what President Bush had planned for our country when he sat down with Colin Powell and other defense leaders. So he put together a blueprint for where he thought defense should go, and President Clinton, when he took over, decided to cut that blueprint by $102 billion.
Now he is coming up slightly in this year's budget with a $12 billion increase. I say it is $12 billion, even though they have a $112 billion increase over six years, because the last half or two-thirds of that increase is not during his presidency. That means that he is giving us a recommendation that defense be increased by some other president some other time.
That means some president who will be elected, who is out there in the year 2004, 2005, is, according to the recommendation of President Clinton, going to increase defense, but I do not think the American people nor the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States can count on that increase. All we can count on President Clinton doing is what he is capable of doing and has the legitimate right to do under his presidency. So let us focus on that.
If we look at Ronald Reagan's defense budgets back in 1986 and compare them with today's, our defense budget today is well over $100 billion less on an annual basis than it was in 1986.
house.gov
Also see -
nscf.net
defenselink.mil |
