By Cheryl Pellerin, American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 30, 2012 - "The Defense Department has placed strategy before budget in facing present and anticipated threats while building its joint force for the future," Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter [a political appointee of Obama] said here today.
Carter discussed DOD's [Obama Administration's] budget priorities for the 21st century at the American Enterprise Institute's Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies, as President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act makes its way through Congress.
"While we've been fighting [in Iraq and Afghanistan] the world has not stood still, our friends and enemies have not stood still, and technology has not stood still," the deputy defense secretary said. [No, our enemies have multiplied in the last 2 years, and the world has become more dangerous. The current administration has cut the next generation of aircraft, ships, and Army technology.]
"Now we must meet these changes and ... in some places, catch up with them," Carter added. "To do that we must let go of the old and familiar and grab hold of the new to build what [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin E.] Dempsey calls the Joint Force 2020, an agile and technologically advanced force of tomorrow." [This administration has requested that Congress cut US Troops to a size smaller than any prior to WWII.]
"The first is obviously the Budget Control Act but the deeper, more fundamental force is the force of strategic history," he said.
The 2011 Budget Control Act is a U.S. federal statute that seeks to reduce the national deficit. A "sequestration" mechanism in the law automatically takes more cuts out of federal spending, including another $500 billion from the Defense Department, which would mean a total defense budget reduction of more than $1 trillion over 10 years.
The result of the Budget Control Act and the new defense strategy, Carter said, was a balanced strategic package in three parts. [Now he claims the "strategy" was defined by the budget.}
First was continued DOD discipline in spending taxpayer dollars, Carter said. Second, he added, was to retain taxpayer confidence that DOD was putting its money to good use. Third, Carter said, was what DOD called rebalancing toward the Asia-Pacific region.
"The Pacific region has enjoyed peace and stability for over 60 years, and in that climate, first Japan, then Korea, and even China have had an environment in which they could develop economically and politically without war or conflict, the deputy defense secretary said.
"That's not a birthright," he added. "That is something that was guaranteed [and] reinforced by the pivotal military power of the United States in that region."
The Defense Department now is bolstering defense capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region, Carter said. [Because of all that "peace and stability?"]
Meanwhile, the Air Force is continuing on with the new stealth bomber, the KC-46 tanker and a host of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, platforms, he said. Other capabilities going forward, he added, include a payload module for the Virginia-class submarines, conventional prompt strike and a host of upgrades in radars, electronic protection, electronic warfare, new munitions of various kinds and more. [The leading technologies of ALL branches have been cut.]
Cyber security is another area where DOD will spend more in the future, Carter said, along with certain aspects of the defense science and technology base, special operations forces, unmanned aerial systems, space initiatives, and countering capabilities for terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, including bioterrorism. [Cyber "warfare" is better addressed by civilian agencies. The military and particularly TRADOC does not change fast enough to keep up with normal technology changes, much less cyber-hacking.]
In the time since DOD [political appointees] released its carefully balanced budget proposal, Carter said, Congress has marked up the document, adding and subtracting programs and equipment.
"We made decisions within the constraints of the Budget Control Act. We had to. And when additions are made to that package in one area, we of necessity have to take something out elsewhere," he said.
Altering DOD's [political appointees] proposed budget package "could lead to an unbalanced portfolio, for example, a hollowing of the force," Carter said, noting he wanted "to specifically call out a couple of important decisions in that regard." [Sending 100,000 Soldiers and Marines to the unemployment lines, as requested by the POTUS, is a hollowing of the force. Congress took that out to prevent hollowing the force. Charging Military Retirees for their retirement benefits is betraying those Troops. Congress has blocked that.]
Congress, he said, is resisting several changes proposed for cost savings by DOD [Obama Administration] to the following programs:
-- TRICARE, for which premiums would rise slightly for retirees; [Finally, someone stood up to Obama on this!]
-- Aircraft retirements, for some aging single-purpose aircraft in favor of newer multi-role aircraft;
-- Reductions in intra-theater strategic lift, for which modeling indicates is in excess of current need; [Evidently that model indicates that the ground troops are already slashed by 100,000 and the enemy will just sing kum-ba-ya.]
-- Reductions in size for the Army and Marine Corps to accommodate a wider spectrum of future combat capability; and [The CURRENT active duty forces cannot conduct the CURRENT mission. More than 75,000 Reserve forces are mobilized on any given day. Clearly, we cannot afford to cut them and maintain National Security.]
-- A somewhat larger and decidedly more capable Navy. [As hollow a claim as any other THIS political appointte makes.]
"In all our services and in all of our activities in national security, we're embarked on a strategic transition following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," Carter said. [The War in Afghanistan is NOT over. 2011 was the second most deadly year of the war and 75% of all violence has occurred in the last 3 years. Moreover, the Administration has committed Troops to Afghanistan through 2024.]
"This is just the beginning," he added. "This ship is making a very big turn, and we need to follow through on our plan and keep moving toward the future." [NO, this attempt by the administration to balance spending increases on domestic earmarks on the backs of Troops MUST be stopped.]
[Bold comments in brackets are those of the WOTN Editor, to correct the record.]