Except it's because of his cutbacks that the military today is in the situation it is in today. Reagan and Bush Sr. built of the US military to it's highest point to date, Clinton slashed the budget and let the armed forces languish, Bush Jr. tried to make use of the military but found out the hard way how much of an effect Clinton had on the military.
That is a misconception. As per the United States Constitution, in Article I, Section 8 the US Congress is charged with raising and maintaining the Land and Sea Forces in the United States of America, not the President.
I'll also point out that the Republicans held the United States Congress for most of the time Clinton was in the White House.
When George Bush Jr. took over the US Military was in pretty good shape, and did a good job in the Afghan Op.
After taking over, Bush's Secretary of Defense pushed for a smaller Force, lighter, more specialized, in my opinion more of a need for Civilian Contractors.
Did Clinton push for what he termed a "Peace Dividend"? Yes he did, seeing how the Cold War was over, it was the right call to make in my opinion.
Did Clinton do things the right way? In my opinion no, but they never do.
The best thing to do is push for a total reorganization, bumping up the size of the Reserves, and the National Guard.
That way the U.S. Military can be cut back when there is little need for such a large standing force, and if there is trouble the Reserves and National Guard can pick up the slack until there are more boots in the Regular Force, sort of the way things are supposed to work.
Now, you take Iraq, there are some 100,000 Civilian Contractors in Iraq, sucking up all the Tax Dollars, along with all the Contracting Companies, eating up billions. If the Active Force is short, then Base Pay Active Duty Privates $50,000.00 a year and work up from that starting point progressively, according to rank for Troops in Theater, so Staff Sergeants can make $75,000.00+ in Base Pay, and so on, and so forth.
Then there would be less of a need to go out and beat the bushes for more Troops on the ground in the Combat Zone, but I believe if there were a law that no Civilian Contractors were used in a Combat Zone that we would not be in Iraq right now.