There has been a huge upswing in military layoffs.  I’ve seen articles from time to time but had not followed up on them.. Today Commentary Magazine has an article by Max Boot about these layoffs.  Before you read it read these links:

“Navy to Lay Off 3,000 Sailors”

Layoffs Hit Air Force Commissioned Officers, Civilians

Air Force Plans 11,000 Layoffs in Next 2 Years

DoD to send notices of layoffs this week

By William H. McMichael – Staff writer

Posted : Monday Dec 10, 2007 17:45:44 EST

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Hundreds of thousands of government and contract employees of the Army and Marine Corps will begin learning this week whether they could be laid off in early 2008 because Congress has failed to pass a war spending bill for the new fiscal year, the Defense Department says.

Once you see these dire circumstances already being forced on our military you can see why Max Boot wrote this article.

Future of U.S. Armed Forces Could Turn on 2012 Election Outcome

Robert Kaplan has a typically trenchant op-ed in the Financial Times (ed. note: free registration required) today about the need for the U.S. to build up its air and naval forces in the western Pacific to counter China and other states that are rapidly building up their own arsenals. He notes: “There is a big difference between a 346-ship U.S. Navy and a 250-ship Navy – the difference between one kind of world order and another.”

Unfortunately, our Navy is already at 284 ships and even without further budget cuts is likely to fall in size. That decline could accelerate and become catastrophic if Congress and the White House go ahead with plans to cut a further $600 billion from the defense budget as a result of the failure of the super-committee. There is already talk in Washington that the entire F-35 program—designed to provide the fifth-generation fighter for all of the military services for decades ahead—could be scrapped. If we do that, we will accelerate a dangerous power shift, leading to the rise of China and the decline of American power.

But there is nothing inevitable about that outcome. President Obama has threatened to veto any bill that tries to exempt the defense budget from sequestration. He appears sanguine about defense cuts. On the other hand, Mitt Romney​, his leading challenger (full disclosure: I am a campaign adviser), has vowed to maintain robust spending on defense that would allow the expansion of the Navy without the evisceration of the ground forces. Rick Perry​ has called on Leon Panetta​ to resign rather than accept massive cuts. Even Newt Gingrich, who seemed open to defense cuts during the AEI/Heritage debate, has now said sequestration would be “totally destructive” and “very dangerous to the survival of the country.”

It is commonly said about every election that it is a potential turning point with major implications for the country’s future. In many cases that’s just partisan hype. In the case of the 2012 election, it’s true: the future of the U.S. armed forces, and of American power in general, could turn on the outcome.