By Roy San Martin
The top three countries with the strongest military are: #1. United States #2. China and #3. Russia. However, China's military has more service personnel (around 2 million), compared to 1.4 million for.the U.S. Yet when the COVID mandate was enacted, it forced 60,000 servicemen out of the Army. We lost some of our best warriors with real combat and leadership experience from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. This caused low morale among those that remain. The House of Representatives recently passed to rescind the vaccine mandate and allow ousted servicemen to return to duty. But has the damage to morale already be done and their voluntary return is still to be seen.
We have 1,957 fighter jets to China's 1,200 fighter jets. The US lags behind 68 to China's 79 submarines. Russia is a dismal third due to lack of motivation in the unnecessary Ukraine war. Morale in the military is important as it improves cohesiveness of the troops.Good morale will mean a stronger force and less likely to surrender.
The Omnibus bill has some good benefits for morale: increasing soldier's pay by 4.6% and housing/food allowance by 11% to offset inflation. The bill includes $858 billion in defense funding for 2023 to cover new construction, major repairs to some bases affected by hurricanes this year, and money ( $27.9 billion as part of the fourth Ukraine supplemental revenue). Part of our defense is a secure border with a 17% boost in funding to hire 300 new Border agents. This will probably not be met due to low morale and lack of support by the present administration. Regular border funding would increase by 12% with an additional one-time bonus of $1.6 billion to address migrant increase at the border.
We need to keep a strong military with major confrontations with Russia, China, and North Korea in the future. Money to boost our military, of course, is important but our president must be a team leader and role model. President Eisenhower summed this up in his remarks: "Guns and tanks and planes are nothing unless there is a solid spirit, a solid heart, and great productivity behind it." We need to find that purpose again and in any war give 100% with the American people and leaders supporting our soldiers. We need to remain the world leader in the world to restore world peace.