ABOUT TIME!
Clinton's halving of the Army (active divisions) went well beyond the planned decrease as a result of the "peace dividend" resulting from the end of the Cold War.
Congress SHOULD act. The Army is not known for crying, but for "can do, SIR" -- and the Army only gets about 1/4 of the DoD budget. AF and Navy have professionalized the lobbying aspect of the military sphere -- while the Army worries more about the troops and the mission and has tended (given the political envrionment, perhaps too much) to be the light-weight in political maneuvering for money . . . as I read it . . .
Bears repeating, I guess . . . ;)
The Army was cut back under the 'toons to the point where many support activities did not exist outside of the Reserves or the Guard.
Blaming Clinton alone on that ignores the fact that he had a GOP congress for 6 of his 8 years. As we see here, Congress can increase the size of Army or reduce the shrinkage. Yet they didn't. Instead senators like Trent Lott viewed the Defense budget as a pork barrel for Pascagoula. So they're all to blame.
And given how badly our troops are streached now, why the hell is Bush disagreeing with this?