“Readiness Crisis” Cycle:

1) Expand the mission of the military to additional conflicts, countries, and commitments
2) Military is overstretched. Accidents rise, deployments nonstop, equipment breaks.
3) “Readiness crisis!”
4) Give military billions more $
5) Go back to step 1

It is impossible to talk about “readiness” without talking about what the mission is that we are asking the military to be “ready” to do.

It is impossible to use “size of military budget” as a proxy for “the military’s readiness.”

Both of those are scams to increase mil budget.

I want a military that:

-Has a much more defined, smaller-scope mission
-Is sized appropriately for that mission
-Is funded for and given the tools for that mission, with well-trained personnel who have time to train and also a high quality of life

Other people want:

-To instigate military confrontations with other countries, because of their hawkish ideology
-To increase the profits of huge defense corporations that fund them in return
-To accomplish both those things at the direct expense of/lives of people like me.