You don't understand how it works, nor would I expect u to. Its beyond Yes Bush senior began the draw down. Colin Powell drafted a plan which took us down to an extent, saved money etc..no problem. they also closed and realigned bases..no issues either. However Clinton took us down far more..he wanted deeper cuts and he got them This is how it works in the Pentagon....u have us, the uniformed guys..we don't stay very long 3-4 years maybe, then u have the beaurocrats, who are there for life..DOD employee's.....GS folks. They run the show. There was a big turnover of folks during the early clinton years...alot of new post cold warriors came aboard. Also there is this group called the executive service corp or some such group. They are all retired COl and General officers...apparently they are a very political group..they are beholden to the Military Industrial complex to some extent as well. I only know about this crap because my Boss is bucking to be one. Well alot of these guys knew that by cutting man power, that they could buy alot of sexy hardware.....they were only concerned with their lane and were not worried about emerging threats, AQ or anything. So the bottom line is that, we, the Uniformed service have as much to do with cuts as u do....its sucks. The game is very discouraging.