US military commander says US army getting dangerously small

A high-ranking US military commander says that the US army is "getting dangerously small", urging greater support from the Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, US combatant commanders told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the future plan to reduce the US Army down to 450,000 active duty soldiers would leave the military too small to meet its needs. "We are getting dangerously small," said General Lloyd Austin, US Commander of Central Command, when asked about the size of the US Army compared to the need for the country’s armed forces. General Joseph Votel, commander of Special Operations Command, also said that the US Army is at "high risk" because of the decline in forces and the high demand for US military power. 

The army is facing increasing demands across the spectrum of US military operations, from current counter-terrorism activities to "threats from the four major challenges out there… [North] Korea, Iran, China and Russia," Votel claimed. In late 2015, the US Army presented a troop reduction plan that would leave it with force strength of 450,000 domestic and foreign forces by mid-2018. The reduction shows a cut of more than 20 percent from the 120,000 soldiers in 2012.

This is while the Senate refused to agree to the Pentagon’s proposal on Monday that closing and consolidating unnecessary military bases would net a 25 percent saving for the military budget. Over the past several years, the US Congress has turned down every request by the Pentagon to consolidate or eliminate a military base. The US army has verily been ramping up its military operations in tension-ridden areas particularly in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East.