Nicholson: Media Botched Story on Troop Numbers Proposal

Defense Policy Journal Editor Alexander Nicholson says that many media outlets inaccurately characterized  the proposal outlined yesterday by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to reduce the number of Army service members to less than 450,000. Outlets including CNN, Fox, and The Hill all said that Hagel’s proposal would reduce the Army’s numbers “to pre-WWII levels.” That claim is, in fact, wrong.

The distinction lost on many reporters, said Nicholson, was small but vital.

“Where many reporters, editors, and bloggers are making their mistake is in their assumption that a drawdown to the lowest numbers since the pre-WWII numbers equates to a drawdown to the pre-WWII level,” he wrote on the DPJ’s website.

He goes on to explain that before WWII, the Army was 267,000 soldiers strong.

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