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According to officials, the U.S. Army plans to cut 40,000 troops over the next two years, affecting all its domestic and foreign posts.

Georgia Republican Johnny Isakson said he will block the president’s nominee for congressional liaison to the Defense Department because the military failed to give Congress a forewarning before publicly announcing the force reductions.

“We cannot afford to reduce our military readiness at a time when the threats to our security here at home and throughout the world are growing at an alarming rate,” Mr. Isakson said. “We should be using our military to send a clear signal to the rest of the world that America has no intention of standing down in the fight against the threat of terrorism worldwide.”

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What officials are calling a sequestration, will call for an additional 30,000 soldiers be removed by fiscal 2019 if Congress allows an attrition across-the-board. Pentagon documents reveal the Army would have 450,000 soldiers by Sept. 30, 2017, the end of the 2017 budget year. The reduction in troops and civilians is due to budget constraints.

Michael O’Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution, shares his ambivalence about the topic.
Cutting “more would make me quite nervous,” he said.

SOURCE: USA TODAY