SAD, AND DANGEROUS – AT 9:35 A.M. ET:  We know, from the bitter experience of the 20th century, that military weakness brings war, not peace.  So this story is chilling, and tells us how reckless the Obama administration has been.  From Fox: 

The number of U.S. Army soldiers on active duty has been reduced to its lowest since 1940, according to a published report.

The Army Times reported this weekend that the Army's endstrength for March was 479,172. That's 154 fewer soldiers than the service's previous post-World War II low, which was reached during the Army's post-Cold War drawdown in 1999.

The current number is still well above the 269,023 soldiers on duty in 1940, the year before America entered World War II. However, the report says the active force has been reduced by more than 16,500 troops over the past year — the equivalent of about three brigades.

According to the Army Times, the Army is on track to reach its goal of reducing the number of active duty troops to 475,000 by Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2016. Under a drawdown plan unveiled last July, the number of active-duty soldiers would be reduced to 460,000 soldiers by the end of fiscal year 2017 and 450,000 by the end of fiscal year 2018, barring action by Congress or the Pentagon.

If those targets are met, the number of soldiers on active duty would be down 20 percent from 2010, when there were nearly 570,000 soldiers on active duty.

COMMENT:  Enemies note these reductions.  And they note the reductions in air wings and naval ships.  They are pleased.

I note that the Republican Party hasn't been much better than the administration.  There are many post-Reagan Republicans who are just numbers crunchers, and have abandoned the post-World War II consensus of "power for peace."  That is reckless and irresponsible.

Oh, by the way, the population of the United States in 1940 was 132 million.  The population of the United States today is 319 million.  As a proportion of population, our military today is much smaller than in 1940.  And that inadequate military in 1940 invited the Second World War.

May 9, 2016