In a recent opinion piece Scales condemned the Obama administration for cutting 40,000 soldiers, as well as jeopardizing the rearmament and proper training of the military.
"Defense Secretary Ashton Carter recently said that the Army will not have enough money for most soldiers to train above the squad level this year. Soldiers need to fight with new weapons; in the past four years, the Army has canceled 20 major programs, postponed 125 and restructured 124. The Army will not replace its Reagan-era tanks, infantry carriers, artillery and aircraft for at least a generation," he asserted.
This trend will be reinforced if the budget spending cuts remain in place, he wrote for the Washington Post. In the next two years, the size of the military is likely to be reduced by additional 40,000 soldiers.
"To be sure, the nation always reduces its military as wars wind down. Other services suffer reductions and shortages. But only the Army breaks. Someone please tell those of us who served why the service that does virtually all the dying and killing in war is the one least rewarded," Scales pointed out.
A number of high-ranking military officials and politicians slammed Obama for the end-strength reduction. They claim that the sequestration-sized armed forces would not be able to protect the United States and tackle challenges elsewhere.
