That's the opening paragraph of an article published by Business Insider last week. The piece, titled "The US military is struggling to keep up with all its responsibilities," could just as easily been titled "The American Empire is overextended," as it thoroughly details the GAO's negative assessment of the current state of the U.S. war machine. Writing that "unrelenting demands from geographic commanders for particular types of forces are disrupting manning, training, and equipping cycles," the report breaks down how each branch of the military is essentially overburdened and underprepared to fulfill its national security obligations. The Air Force, for instance, has reported that less than 50 percent of its forces are at acceptable readiness levels. Additionally, the branch says, it's short of 1,500 pilots and 3,400 maintenance crew members. The Marine Corps is also running short of resources, with 80 percent of its aviation units lacking the minimum number of aircraft available for training — with the same trend going for the number of craft ready for wartime. The Navy, the GAO found, suffers primarily from the high pace of operations and a lack of funds devoted to maintenance.