An op-ed by Gabriel Cohen

President Obama has announced that he has wanted to cut military spending for a while. His proposals have been met by a lot of military officials who have had their heads spinning after hearing that president Obama proposed a 46 billion dollar budget cut for the military. Throughout the pandemonium, military officials had thought up a different plan that might also help; this plan was to cut spending on developing the new F-35, the most advanced war plane to its date. The plan would be to cut back on our nuclear weapons arsenal and on the military health care, which is one of the costliest military health care systems in the world. The U.S. alone has spent more on the military health care system then it has on aiding the rest of the world. There’s so much money being spent that President Obama has declined the pentagons request to have about 100,000 troops on stand-by. Military officials want to cut spending on bases. These cuts would not see results immediately but over 5 to 10 years change will be noticed. As for our nuclear arsenal, well military officials want to preserve the nuclear weapons on the coast and the ones in nucles subs.

Personally, I agree that the United States is spending too much money on our nation’s military, but at the end of the day, I disagree with these cuts that are being proposed. The world is changing, and cutting back on our military may cause a lot of issues in the future. Nuclear terrorism plays a huge factor in the U.S. or the rest of the world. Removing strategic locations of our nuclear weapons can play a huge factor in case of a nuclear war. Also, cutting back on our fighter jet programs is another mistake. Our nation’s Air Force is slowly becoming outdated. Introducing the F-35 can give the us a major advantage in the air and battlefield. Lieutenant Colonel Miner, is of the USMC (United States Marine Corps), and a former acquaintance. The Marine Lt. Col. had told me that the day the military changes, so will this nation. I agree with him. Cutting back could also mean a lot of jobs being lost. The health care for the military is very important, besides physical and psychological treatment, soldiers come back from the war and have post traumatic war syndrome, and that is something that the military health care system covers.