Here is one I wholeheartedly concur with.
Hegseth directs 20% cuts to top generals and admirals among other reductions across military
Edward Luttwak,
The Pentagon and the Art of War showed that in 1945, with 12,800,000 men and women in uniform, the US military had 145 3-star generals and above.
In 1985, with 4.8 million men and women, we had
148 3-star generals and above.
I can tell you from personal experience, more generals does not mean better decisions or better-functioning staffs. It means gumming up the works, slowing staffs down, and getting less done.
If you get a flag officer position, the general needs to justify his position by injecting himself into things that functioned well before he arrived.
He will say, "From now on, before we prosecute that time-sensitive target, I need to approve it.
But, before the general can see it, his colonel needs to approve it to weed out mistakes before they get to the general. Before the colonel can approve it, the major needs to scrub it, etc etc. Adding a flag officer just adds another layer to clear. The staff did not get faster. It got
slower.
On the other hand, before the Second World War,
Major Eisenhower briefed Congress on military requirements. Today, only 4-stars get to speak before Congress. Of course, the 4-star has to have a 3-star to carry his bags. The 3-star needs to have a 2-star to carry the 3 star's bags. And so on. More flag officers is not better. Its worse. Much worse. Gradually over time, the services have gotten more and more flag officer billets approved.
And, while some flag officers I have known are good dudes, there are a lot that you would not want on your Trivial Pursuit team. I saw an army division commander on a contingency op in which muslims were significant players ask when Muslims celebrate Christmas. No, I'm not kidding.
USMC is a corps. The entire force structure is three divisions, The normal corps commander is a 3-star. Right now, there are three USMC 4-star generals (COMUSAFRICOM, Commandant, Assistant Commandant).
Three four-stars for a corps. The other services are similarly bloated.
If we need more generals in the event of war, promote some..My favorite Abe Lincoln anecdote was when someone briefed Linciln on the losses in a recent battle: 25 generals and 5,000 horses. Lincoln responded, "That's too bad about the horses. I can always make more generals."
