first it was teachers and firefighters...

with all the tea party hoopla about cutting government spending, along with the all-out assault on federal workers, i guess this was inevitable:

Panetta suggests current service members may spared from proposed pension cuts - Political Hotsheet - CBS News: "Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Tuesday suggested that current service members might be spared some proposed deep cuts to the military's generous retirement plan .

CBS News reported Monday that the current military retirement system is a potential target for budget cutters and the Pentagon may begin offering a 401(k) style savings plan instead of the defined benefit plan now in place."

actually, it's just panetta's continuing snow job to preserve pentagon budgets against the meat cleaver that's in store for the feds...

still, with the poverty draft swelling the ranks of enlistees, just like the general economy is oversupplied with labor the military has ample cannon fodder to run a race to the bottom in military pay and benefits.

with all the gee-whiz military hardware coming out, warm bodies are the cheapest, most expendable part of the machine, after all.

our politicians like to talk big about how grateful we are for the sacrifices of our fighting men and women. they make for some great, melodramatic moments at baseball games and such, when the troop gets whisked away from the front lines to be reunited with family, but it's all a con job. military is a business just like the rest, and if they could outsource the fighting to the chinese the masters of war probably would.

for obvious reasons, that's not happening (yet). so watch the amazing, shrinking benefits for military personnel fizzle away before your eyes... suckers!