Talking about the dangers of sequestration and military cuts does not seem to address the real problem or what I believe is the best and only way to seriously reduce military costs. We have, it appears, become our own worst enemy.One would think we are in the business of empire-building. If you require confirmation, just look at the size of the Army, with its many top-heavy agencies filled with general officers, NCOs and high-ranking civilians. It has become a laughing matter, one that needs attention, but we also need to avoid doing the wrong thing.Here are three things we shouldn’t do. First, we should not take away benefits that were the reason many volunteered for the military in the first place. These volunteers put their lives on hold and left their families to defend—and, in some cases, die for—the rights we enjoy in the U.S. Second, we should not cut military programs that better enable those same people to do the very difficult jobs we ask them to do all over the world—or, in the case of the Reserve and National Guard, right here in America. Finally, we shouldn’t screw with soldiers’ pay, which we all know is meager anyway. If we do these things, it is only a matter of time before volunteers start to say they’ve had enough. In fact, we are seeing it already.What, then, do we do? It is really pretty simple: There are too many components in the total force. If you take into account all the services, including the Coast Guard, we have 12 different components. (That total is the result of counting the active, Reserve and National Guard components of each service.) We have to reduce the number of components. That means reducing force structure from the top, not the bottom. In the past, force structure has always been cut from the bottom.We can do this if we are willing to combine forces. I had a joint assignment back in the ‘80s and learned a new term: purple-suiter. It simply meant all the services needed to work together to get the job done, and that philosophy is still true today. We do very little that is service-specific; instead, we task-organize and do primarily joint operations. In all those operations, we needed people to fly planes, drive boats and put their boots on the ground. That works out to three components, so why do we have all the others? The answer to that is empire-building. I don’t know where or when it got started, but we have to change our force-structure thinking if we are ever going to make ends meet.There is no logical reason to keep all these components other than to provide for more headquarters, more staff and more expenses—expenses we can no longer afford and can do without.There is no way you can get rid of the active Army, but do we need both an Army Reserve and an Army National Guard? I say no. The Reserve and Army National Guard are properly referred to as the Army reserve component, so combine them. Because of states’ rights, I doubt you could roll the Guard into the Army Reserve, but you could easily do the reverse.The Air Force should be consolidated, like the Army, but there is not much you can do with the Navy unless we feel we don’t need a Navy Reserve. I, for one, would not agree with that. As for the Coast Guard, it could be eliminated through a change in law giving civil arresting authority to other armed services. It wouldn’t be the first time the Posse Comitatus Act rules were changed, and it would be for good reason. The Coast Guard is so underfunded now anyway that it’s a joke.Some might take me to task on this point, but in today’s military forces, there isn’t anything the Marine Corps does that the Army can’t and doesn’t do already. Do I want to lose the Marines? No! But we are talking about needs, not wants. We are talking about the survivability of the total force—one we can afford.The obvious question now is: What is the cost savings of all this? I’m not a bean counter, but I would be willing to bet that it is substantial. Think of all the headquarters and staffs you eliminate. Are some senior officers and enlisted going to have to retire? Yes. But come on, guys, you have arrived. You have had your time in the lights. It’s time to think about the country and the future of our military. It may sound corny, but it’s the truth and deep down we all know it.I would like to make two final points. First, this doesn’t mean that all those having to retire take off their uniform, put on a suit and keep doing the same old thing. There is way too much of that double-dipping going on already for the same cost or more. That brings me to my final point: Somebody with a whole lot of integrity and high enough up to be able to do something about it needs to take a really hard look at the same issue on the civilian side of DoD. We can do a lot of the same in that arena.