"Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad, the committee chairman, said that given the country's fiscal crisis more savings must be found in the core defense budget, and that it would be impossible to address the nation's deficit without doing so."
Bullshit. If you applied this logic to the average family, people would be selling their cars so they buy a new mansion. The nearly exponential increase in the big three entitlement programs are going to bankrupt our country, not defense spending. And your reference to the $850K per soldier per year is similarly illogical. Obviously war is expensive and when fly in Baskin Robins for 800 Chiefs who shouldn't be there in the first place, it doesn't get any cheaper. But they're not talking about cutting back on downrange spending, they're talking about taking away the entitlements of the military. Finally, if we're going to cut entitlements, we should start with those who have done little or nothing to earn them rather than those who have earned them with blood, sweat, and tears.