Brigadier General Robert Brown is not shy about praising our Army:
“We are modernizing the Soldier faster than we have at any time in the U.S. Army. It is our belief that the Soldier today is the most survivable, lethal, capable Soldier in the history of warfare. We need to keep it that way and we need to improve it.”
But if you want to check out a real hollow military, cast your eyes across the Atlantic to the continent:
The basic problem with European military organizations is that most of them are basically make-work programs. It's long been known that many European soldiers are not really fit for action. They are uniformed civil servants. One reason many are not ready for combat, or even peacekeeping, operations, is that they don't have the equipment, or the training. And that's because up-to-date gear, and training, are expensive. A disproportionate amount of money is spent on payroll. That keeps the unemployment rate down more effectively than buying needed equipment, or paying for the fuel and spare parts needed to support training.
Which is why we are reduced to begging the Europeans to scrape up a battalion here and a helicopter there to help out in Afghanistan. That's pretty sad for the greatest military alliance in history.
And it is why the Marine Corps will always (well, except for South Korea in South Korea) be the most significant "allied" ground force to fight with the Army.
The Europeans are certainly capable of fielding first-class militaries. They've chosen not to do so for the most part.
