While President Obama is politicizing the anniversary of the killing of al-Qaida terror leader bin Laden, Arizona Congressional District 1 candidate Doug Wade takes issue with the Obama’s defense budget cuts to military end strength. The following statement is made by Doug Wade as an entire quote:
According to the National Institute of Mental Health in its publication, “NIH Medline Plus,” America’s war veterans are at a high risk of suicide. The risk is so high, that the suicide rate among our serving military members now surpasses that of the general population.
Reserve and National Guard members are at a high risk. Between 2008 and 2009, there was a 36% increase in suicides among Army Reserve soldiers not on active duty.
Thinning our military forces during a time of war contributes to the combat stress that military members, including those in the National Guard and Reserve, bring home with them. This is increased in great part because we demand more multiple back to back combat deployments.
As Congress begins its consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of Fiscal Year 2013 (FY13), it is imperative that Members and Senators take into account ‘strategy’ over budget driven decisions by the Department of Defense (DOD) in determining appropriate end strength requirements. As a country at war, now is not the time to start thinning our national security force.
Our service members are already being asked to sacrifice precious time with their families, serving multiple (in some cases four or five) tours of duty in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). The Obama Administration is cutting the military force in the FY13 Budget Request. We are not only reducing our strength, but increasing the time we ask our service members to spend away from their loved ones.
In these tough economic times, it is important we have close inspection of how our money is spent. In doing so, we will undoubtedly find areas in which we can run more efficient and effectively. Trying to cut corners to our national defense, we create more problems for both our service members and our way of life.
Information that is distributed by leaders in the United Arizona Veterans council and other citations tell us that 1 in every 5 military members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have PTSD and that overall more than 300,000 service members, or 20 percent of the military members that have deployed in the past six years have PTSD.
At the highest risk are the members of the National Guard and Reserve. All branches of the military, including the Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard, have deployed members to the ground wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan to make up for shortages or provide support for soldiers and Marines – it is truly an unconventional use of military forces due to a continual down-sizing of the military.
Unlike active duty members, Reserve and National Guard members are together for only 40 some days a year outside of a deployment cycle. They rely on private medical care and don’t have as many trained, watchful eyes on them when they go home. We also know that the effects of PTSD don’t immediately surface – it starts sometime after 90 days of being back home.
Not only must we provide excellent mental health and other services to both our active duty and reserve forces, we need to keep our military personnel numbers up as long as we are at war, not decrease them. The decreases are causing more back to back deployments and stresses that those who serve will carry with them for a lifetime.
As a Veteran, as someone who is running for Congress, I am standing up for these military members and their families to make sure we take the steps that keeps them from an early grave.
About Doug Wade
Doug Wade is a Republican Candidate for U.S. Representative in Arizona Congressional District 1. He has lived in the District more than 25 years. He is the father of two grown daughters. He and his wife, Grazina, operate a construction firm based in Sedona, Arizona. He has been active in the Yavapai County Republican Party. To learn more about Doug Wade, visit www.wadeforcongress2012.com.
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The military budget has a lot of waste built into it — defense contractors are socialistic enterprises, that do not operate anywhere as efficiently as private sector businesses. This is simple economics 101. They are oligopolies — there aren’t enough of them to be competitive. Defense cuts could be handled by pruning unnecessary management levels from defense programs, within the military, and at defense contractors. Streamlined processes and greater efficiency could also be put in place to reduce the costs of the budget. I know, I have spent a fair bit of time working as an engineer in the defense industry, and, compared to the private sector, it costs 3 to 4 times as much money to develop something for defense, compared to the private sector. Defense cuts can be made, and, if we had good management within the defense industry, the end result would be a stronger, leaner, readier military.
I agree entirely that our Defense budget can do with cuts.
However, I can’t agree with the statement of “there aren’t enough of them to be competitive”.
Having spent several years between 2000-2010 living in NoVA and commuting daily into D.C. I certainly saw no shortage of companies doing defense related work.
I am not talking about subs. I am talking about Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, and Raytheon. Those are the big defense contractors that, except for Boeing, do mainly defense work, on the big projects — the F22, the F35, the littoral combat ships, submarines, missiles, etc . Making that industry more competitive could free up dollars that could go directly towards increasing force levels. My view is that you can cut the defense budget and increase troop strength by squeezing the fat out of defense contracts.
Bill, the issue is the stress on our forces and what Obama is doing to them by all these cuts! It is not about trimming the fat, it is about force reductions and increased demands on a smaller military. We are sending Sailors to ground combat – have been for years. How does that work? We are sending Air Force members into ground combat roles. How does that work? It is forced because the Army, Marine Corps, Reserves and National Guard are getting cut during a time of war.
Now, 1 out of 5 service members who are deployed to SW Asia are coming home with PTSD because there is no defined battlefield – the minute you step into the area of operations you are in combat from all angles.
Doug Wade is standing up for the Veterans. He is the first to speak out on this in the CD1 race and profoundly so.
Where is the money going to come from? It’s not all right to propose a solutions without identifying the funding source — that is irresponsible. I am suggesting that money to fund troops and veterans benefits can be made available by putting the squeeze on defense contractors. Doug Wade is not telling us where the money is going to come from.
Standing for our veterans is absolutely the right thing to do, as they risk it all to do what most will not lift a finger to do, including our elected leaders, who lead us into most of these unconstitutional wars , which are actually ‘police actions’.
This piece does not appear to be citing constitutionality of purpose in all these conflicts, but our obligation to those who served by a grateful people who truly desire to live free in liberty.
Having served in Viet Nam was not my choice, as I was obligated to go. I saw many who did not come back in one piece, either mentally or physically. We owe them all a great debt of gratitude and care; those who served with honorable intentions and sacrificial service.
Increasing military spending is just going to put more money into the pockets of defense contractors. It won’t be spent on bettering the lives of service members, or increasing veterans benefits. It will be spent on increasing the bonuses for the top executives of the large defense contractors.