Military cutbacks

Secretary of Defense Hagel announced major cutbacks in America’s armed forces.  We will have fewer soldiers in uniform than at any time since 1940, prior to World War II.  A smaller-sized military means that going to war will require careful thought.

The “Law of the Hammer” says that if you give a small boy a hammer, he will find that everything needs pounding.  There is probably an equivalent law for armies:  If you give a nation a very large armed force, it will find many countries need invading.  

Sen. McCain and his sidekick Lindsay Graham, for example, have in the last few years proposed invading Libya and Syria.  We also had that adventure in Iraq, and we are still messing around in Afghanistan.  A smaller army will make such adventurism less likely, and that’s a good thing.