ASHLEIGH BANFIELD (HOST): So let me go right to the Pentagon. If we're talking about the current state of the military and what Donald Trump would like to do to change the military, it's best to go to the place where the military actually resides. So Barbara Starr, how do you think this is going to be received where you are? And also, is the state of the union on the military as Donald Trump just laid out accurate?
BARBARA STARR: Well, Trump has been putting out that message in his view that the U.S. military is broken, if you will, that it's too small, there isn't enough capability. I was listening, and in some cases he goes back to what the U.S. military was in 1915. Let's be clear. The U.S. military can be much smaller than it was. The weapons, the capabilities, are tens of orders, if not hundreds of orders of magnitude more capable. It doesn't need, by any measure, what it used to have decades ago. Now, military commanders always want more. They've been pushing for more on Capitol Hill. But there's some reality checks here. Think of it this way, Ashleigh. The U.S. military is essentially a manpower-heavy, high-tech enterprise, and if you're going to continue to expand that, you are going to have fixed costs. You're going to have to maintain all those weapons. You may or may not use them. You're going to have to pay people, you're going to have to provide health care. These are huge bills. Is the Congress really going to fund all of this is a big question. But let's see if we can go back one step further. Trump puts out all these numbers. You had a graphic a minute ago up there of the statistics of the size of what he would like to see. Tens of thousands in the army, thousands of additional fighter jets, that kind of thing. I think most military commanders, when you look at those numbers, would say, “Wait a minute. Those are numbers, but what is it you're trying to do? What is the threat out there? What is the military capability you need to match that threat, to deal with that threat?” Capabilities and numbers of aircraft, numbers of ships, numbers of people, are two different things. It really has to start, most commanders will tell you, with what is it that you're trying to do.
