From an article in the online Philadelphia Inquirer:

The size of the active-duty Army now stands at 480,000, down from its peacetime post-World War II peak of 781,000.

Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs of Staff oppose increasing the Army's size. They say it is a hugely expensive, last-resort option that could force the Pentagon to divert funds from technology and other priorities. They also say it would take too long to recruit and train new soldiers.

We don't seem to have enough bodies on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan and we are stretching the expectations of the Nat'l Guard and Reservists (the focus of the article); we don't have enough bodies who understand the language of are adversaries, much less their thinking; and he wants to cut forces and spend more on technology.

He's not into nation building -- it takes bodies. The only sense I can make is that he believes that the military is just a police force. Peace-keeping will be carried out by corporations. Free market economics will be embraced and liberate (even though its utilitarian view of usury is contrary to their beliefs).

He embraces special ops as the face of the military future.

This troubles me. I see a consolidation of the Seals, the Rangers, and the rest under one command. I see a synergy of operational capability to disrupt that is truly unparalleled. I see a pervasive code of secrecy buttressed by the operational need for a certain amount of obscurity. I see a slippery slope leading to a secret police empowered to spy and act domestically guided only by the Secretary of Defense and, maybe, the President.

And then I get to thinking about this: Jesus Plus Nothing, undercover among America's secret theocrat's by Jeffrey Sharlet.