January 14, 2006: In yet another case of history repeating itself, the U.S. Army, under pressure to cut its budget, took $1.5 billion from a program to buy supplies to be stored on ships around the world, so the material could be quickly moved to some future hot spot. While it is possible to get troops and equipment to a hot spot quickly, enabling them to do much requires thousands of tons of supplies. In other words, the troops arrive and can do little but defend themselves until a heavy, steady flow of supplies reaches them. By cutting this program, the army is limiting its options in future crises. Traditionally, logistic and training are two areas where cuts are made first. In this case, the army as told to cut $2.1 billion, and 71 percent of it came out of logistics.