Military Decline Quotes

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian military rotted away. In one of the most dramatic campaigns in world history, from 1988-1994, Moscow's armed forces shrank from 5 million to 1 million personnel.

The American army between world wars after World War I had virtually disintegrated. It was a very small force, given largely to practicing cavalry charges on western outposts.

How is it that Nigeria's military, which has a good record across West Africa, cannot claim back to 14 out of 774 local governorates from Boko Haram? They have to ask for mercenaries from South Africa? How the mighty has fallen!

I think under the leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the generals have been reduced to rubble. They have been reduced to a point where it's embarrassing for America.

I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time... The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.

That was a pretty fine Army that we had in 1965. By 1973, it was in tatters. It was a disgrace to the country and to itself, to its own heritage, really. So it's, you know, the Army belongs to all 307 million of us. It is our common possession, it's our common heritage. As goes the Army, so goes the republic.

With Yeltsin, the Soviet Union broke apart, the country was totally mismanaged, the constitution was not respected by the regions of Russia. The army, education and health systems collapsed. People in the West quietly applauded, dancing with and around Yeltsin. I conclude therefore that we should not pay too much attention to what the West is saying.

Around the world, America's influence has declined while this president [Barack Obama] has destroyed our military, our allies no longer trust us, and our adversaries no longer respect us.

Every weapon system has been gutted.

ISIS has a caliphate the size of Indiana! Also, US military has been totally gutted. Can't even project power anymore.

We're going to rebuild our military. Our military is depleted. Our military is frankly, our military is in trouble.

The main occupation of society has changed from fighting to business, from military to industrial life.

We had 600 ships, a 600 ship Navy under [Ronald] Reagan. We're down to 200 now [in 2016].

Continuous paring of appropriations has reduced the Army virtually to the status of that of a third-rate power

The malaise and military decline of the post-Vietnam years under President Jimmy Carter set the stage for Russian aggression abroad and uncertainty among our allies.

Not only the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, everything is going away at a time when certainly we are at a top priority for making sure that doesn't happen. We're not respected to the extent we were and if we keep going like this, we won't be respected at all.

Our military has been greatly weakened by a lot of bad decisions and other things.

Speaking of failure, when we do our question and answer period, you look at what's happened with our Navy in terms of the number of ships and our armed forces generally, how they're so depleted, how they're at almost record-setting lows and in some cases absolute record-setting lows. It is very, very unfortunate and very, very dangerous for our country.

It is scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption. This long peace, and the uniform government of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated.

We talk about our military being degraded over time, and yet we've had folks who've been a part of Congress who have participated in sequester; who participated in the degrading of this military over time.

The weapons that were once outside sharpening themselves on war are now indoors there, in the fortress, fragile in glass cases; Why is it (I'm thinking of the careful moulding round the stonework archways) that in this time, such elaborate defences keep things that are no longer (much) worth defending?

On 9/11, 2001, the Navy stood at 316 ships. By 2008, after one of the great military buildups in American history, we were at 278 ships and had 49,000 fewer sailors.