Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, brief the press on major budget decisions stemming from the defense strategic guidance at the Pentagon, Jan. 26, 2012. DOD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley
Why Stop There? -- James Traub, Foreign Policy
The Obama administration's leaner, meaner military may be still too big.
If you listened on Thursday afternoon to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lay out the details of the 2013 Pentagon budget, warning that cuts yet deeper than the ones Congress had mandated could "inflict severe damage to our national security for generations to come," you would have had a hard time believing that the Pentagon's budget had been reduced all of 1 percent -- from $531 to $525 billion -- with small increases projected over the coming years. While the rest of the federal budget is being squeezed to a pulp, the Defense Department, which now absorbs more than half of discretionary spending, has to forego the 6 to 7 percent increases to which it has become accustomed since 9/11. Cue the violins.
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My Comment: If all the wars, international tensions and conflicts stop, and terrorism disappears .... yup .... the U.S. military is too big. But something tells me that this is not going to change.
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