US Proposes Cutting Military Pension & Health Benefits To Buy More Weapons

Pensions and health care plans for US troops will be drastically reduced under a new budget presented by US President Barack Obama on Thursday. Not all aspects of the DoD will be annihilated, however.

The DoD will ditch medical benefits for troops but continue to spend on its expensive arsenal of doom.

President Obama joined Defense Secretary Leon Panetta from the Pentagon early Thursday in a rare public address from the two to talk changes made to the ledger in regards to the operation of the US military. As the US begins to scale back on foreign operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration is finding less of a need for the servicemen and women that have been on the battlefronts for the last decade. In order to cut costs, the new budget will thus eliminate positions from the armed forces and initiate changes to the pension and health care plans for military vets.

Those changes will help balance the Defense Department’s budget as the Pentagon unveils that it will continue to invest billions in cutting edge weaponry and cyberspace capabilities.

Citing the end of the war in Iraq and a drawdown of troops in Afghanistan, the president said Thursday that the US must strategize on how to successfully prepare for future conflicts. In order to do such, said Obama, boots on the ground will be needed less and less. Instead, the US will rely more heavily on an agile, dispersed arsenal of troops and increased surveillance space age weaponry presence.

President Obama said that the move to scale back personnel comes after decimating al-Qaeda’s leadership, progressing in Afghanistan and a successful mission to protect the Libyan people and assist in the overthrowing of the Gaddafi regime. Despite these victories, however, America must be prepared for future action elsewhere in the world.

“Yes, the tide of war is receding,” said Obama, but “what kind of military will we need long after the wars of the last decade are over?”

“Yes, our military will be leaner, but the world must know that the United States will maintain its military superiority,” he said.