The Clinton/Gore Administration stretched our military forces very thin from 1993 to 1999. In addition, they increased spending on social experiments while cutting defense spending.
* Between 1960 and 1991, the United States Army conducted 10 "operational events." From 1991 through 1999, the Army conducted 26 operational events --- 2 1/2 times that number in 1/3 the time span.
* As of 1999, there were 265,000 American troops in 135 countries.
* Since the end of the Gulf War, our military has shrunk by 40 percent. Army divisions have dropped from 18 to 10. The Army has reduced its ranks by more than 630,000 soldiers and civilians and closed over 700 installations at home and overseas.
* Since 1990, the Air Force has shrunk from 36 fighter wings (active and reserve) to 20. The Air Force has downsized by nearly 40 percent while simultaneously experiencing a fourfold increase in operational commitments.
* At the height of the Reagan Administration build-up, the Navy had 586 ships. As of 1999, it had only 324. The Clinton Administration’s blueprint called for that number to further drop to 305. If the rate of ship construction and retirement by this administration is continued, that number could fall to only 200 ships by 2020.
* Since 1987, active duty military personnel have been reduced by more than 800,000. To illustrate that problem:
1. In June 1998, the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier battle group deployed with 770 fewer personnel than it did on its previous deployment three years before.
2. At about the same time, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, another carrier, began a 6-month deployment 464 people short of its 2,963 authorized billets.
3. In late 1998, the USS Enterprise deployed for the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf short 400 personnel.
* In 1999, the Navy had a total of 22,000 empty slots in a 324-ship fleet.
* In addition, the armed services suffered a severe ammunition shortfall going into the Kosovo engagement. According to the Service Chiefs, the FY99 ammunition shortfall for the Marine Corps is $193 million. For the Army in FY00, it is a shocking $3.5 billion.
The equipment we have is aging:
* The average age of the B-52H bombers— put to use in the Balkans—is 40 years old.
* The average age of the Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV) is 29 years old.
* The design of the CH-46 helicopter—a Marine mainstay—is approximately 43 years old.
* A-10 pilots flying over Kosovo were forced to spend their own money to buy inferior, off-the-shelf GPS receivers at local stores and attach them with Velcro to their planes to use in conjunction with their outdated survival radios should their planes crash.
* At a congressional hearing held in February 1999 at the Navy’s Strike and Air Warfare Center in Fallen, NV – the world-renowned "Top Gun" fighter pilot school – Members were told that mechanical problems had grounded 14 of the center’s 23 aircraft.
* In 1999, more than half of the B1-Bs at Ellsworth AFB were not mission capable because they lack critical parts.
And I can tell you that speaking with pilots first hand as of August 2001, they were complaining about the lack of flight time due to the age of the aircraft and the need for servicing and lack of replacement parts.
On Friday, the leading House Democrat, Nancy Pelosi chimed in with her two cents.
She said, "I have absolutely no regret about my vote on this war. The cost in human lives, the cost to our budget - probably $100 billion - we could have probably brought down that statue for a lot less. The cost to our economy. But the most important question at this time, now that we're toward the end of it is, is what is the cost to the war on terrorism?"
Pelosi talked of the toppling of Saddam’s regime as if were some sort of public works project. And as Mrs. Pelosi praised the troops, she also said their success was owed "in large measure" to former President Bill Clinton.
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