Summary

The Pentagon warns that a potential government shutdown by Friday will halt military paychecks during the holidays unless Congress reaches a funding agreement.

Troops, including overseas and reserve forces, must continue reporting for duty unpaid, with federal civilian workers also affected.

The issue stems from House Republicans abandoning a spending plan after criticism from Donald Trump and Elon Musk over unrelated provisions, leaving lawmakers scrambling for an alternative.

Military leaders caution that this funding lapse will cause widespread disruptions, though such outcomes have been partially mitigated in past shutdowns.

  • @[email protected]
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    1 month ago

    Oh god I hope so. Recruitment is already falling fast in the US. No one wants to be soldiers. Which good, USA needs to stop being a warmongering nation. Less soldiers equals less wars, it’s a simple numbers game. If you ALSO take away the paychecks of the few stupid enough to be loyal to this violent nation, well that’s it, we’re done.

    *Edit: A literal starve the beast.

    • @I_Fart_Glitter
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      171 month ago

      The numbers stopped adding up years ago. There are 1.5 military contractors (largely not US citizens) for every 1 enlisted soldier in the US military. We just pay people to fight our wars. Otherwise we would have to draft and people would get upset about our endless wars again.

      https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/social/corporate

    • @NocturnalMorning
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      141 month ago

      You dont need a ton of people if you bomb everyone with autonomous drones, which is exactly what they are doing.

      • @kautau
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        51 month ago

        True, but you do need people to man the nearly 800 military bases the US has around the globe and I’m sure pretty much everyone except the neoconservatives would like to see many of those shut down or transferred to be run purely by their host government

      • @[email protected]
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        41 month ago

        We can’t fight wars with only drones any more than we could fight them with only airpower. At some point, there are always boots on the ground.

    • Chainweasel
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      111 month ago

      Unfortunately a smaller volunteer army does not mean less war, it just increases the odds of conscription if we do get into a conflict.

    • @seaQueue
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      1 month ago

      Less soldiers equals less wars, it’s a simple numbers game.

      You underestimate Republican willingness to fight wars with low/no oversight civilian contractors.