"Who decimated the military? Not Reagan! Not Bush, Sr! Clinton, Kerry, et al! That's who! I think if Kerry, God forbid is elected, you will see a mass exodus of military personnel. Received an email from a buddy in the Air Force today and indicated that."
Actually, the drawdown was proposed by then Gen Collin Powell who wanted to reduce our military from 2.1 million (in the late 80's) to 1.6 million by the mid-90's. This plan was approved by then SECDEF Cheney and President Bush and sent to Congress in Feb of 1991. The plan called for reduction of the Army from 18 active divisions down to 12 (I don't know all the details of the other service reductions). This was mainly in response to the declining threat posed by the Soviet Union. President Clinton cut 2 more active divisions during his term.
As to the predicted "mass exodus" if Kerry happens to win... rest assured people, most of the soldiers I serve with serve because they are patriotic and know the country needs them. We'll serve no matter who's President.
So Kerry will immediately lift Stop Loss, which he refers to as a "backdoor draft", and everyone will just say, "Cool. I'll reenlist."?
Kerry has no problem in stabbing the men and women of the miltary in the back. I'm sure he will be worse than Carter.
Good luck.