Good old Barney Frank is at again:

As the Army’s transformation in Europe moves forward, with a string of base closures planned in the year ahead, a group of lawmakers has launched a campaign to further cut the U.S. military presence in Europe and Asia.

Against the backdrop of a burgeoning national deficit and years of massive increases in defense spending, the restructuring plan meant to save taxpayers $80 billion in overseas military spending has reignited the debate in Congress over the future of U.S. military bases abroad.

“I do not think we should be spending money to have troops in Germany 65 years after World War II. We have a terrible deficit and we have to cut back,” said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, who is spearheading a House effort to cut defense spending. “NATO was a wonderful concept. But 61 years later, I think it’s time to say our western European allies should be on their own. We’ll cooperate with them, but we shouldn’t be subsidizing their defense.”  [Stars & Stripes]

Readers may remember that I posted last week how Barney Frank wanted to cut US forces in Okinawa even though he didn’t even know why they were there.  What I find interesting about all of this is that while Congressmen like Barney Frank want to cut the military while it is fighting two wars they do nothing to cut their own spending and are in fact expanding the size of the government. Can you believe they want to cut the military by 200,000 servicemembers?  Why don’t they propose cutting the federal government work force by 200,000 people as well?

What is even more ironic about this is that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been trying to cut weapon systems programs in order to avoid cutting force levels and has been repeatedly blocked by Congress who is trying to protect jobs in their voting districts.

I think the ideal military for many in Congress is one with lots of weapon systems with no people left to man them.