When our military leaders sell out the troops to please the boss

This article from Military.com is a great example of why our senior military officials, be they in or out of uniform, have absolutely no idea what the troops are really thinking or how to advise Congress on the future direction of the military.  In fact, it shows nothing more than that they have learned well to follow the oft quoted phrase, "what interests my boss fascinates me."  In this case, their boss is the Commander in Chief and by their statements, you can tell what interests him. 
Let's start with this opening paragraph, "Senior Pentagon officials told Congress on Tuesday that troops are willing to sacrifice portions of their pay and benefits if it means keeping and improving the training and equipment needed to do their jobs."  Even if true, I would expect that how these questions and answers are phrased would have a lot to do with the response that these Senior officials are getting.  Given such a bold statement, let's look at where the data for such a statement came from.  "However, the personnel officials who offered testimony before the subcommittee could offer only personal anecdotes to back up their belief that troops would welcome pay and benefit cuts. No survey results were offered. Leaders also said it could not wait for the results of a commission due to issue its report on military pay and benefits next year."  Oh, now I see, we don't really have any hard data that backs up our testimony, this is from our extensive time on the front lines of Afghanistan asking the troops whether they would give up some of their pay so they can have bullets to fire at those shooting at them. 
By the way, I am in the military, and I am in favor of some reduction in benefits, but I'll be willing to take a cut in my benefits(and that of my family who have endured multiple moves and countless years of me being away from home) as soon as the ENTIRE Federal government decides to slash costs across the board.  In case those of you out in the audience forget, these are not welfare checks, these are promised benefits for those troops and their families who have sacrificed by deploying away from home throughout their entire careers.  What would make a really remarkable article would be the one in which those on welfare doing zero work were quoted as saying they were taking a cut in their benefits to pay for the troops that were on the front lines risking their life.  Now that would be something.
Make no mistake, these Senior officials know how to play the game and they are doing nothing more than preparing the battlefield for what they are already planning to do in the future.  There has been too much talk over the last couple of years about changing retirement benefits, slashing pay, etc. for this not to be a concerted effort from the top down to break the promises the Nation has made to its troops.  If they were really serious about cutting costs and that was the true goal, then these same Senior officials would have already enacted changes to incoming recruits so that everyone would know the ground rules of the game before they began to play.  The bottom line is that this isn't about cutting costs, it is about destroying the morale of those serving the country.