Category Archives: Military Strategy

Well today is the deadline for this famed group of twelve (six Democrats and six Republicans) Super-Committee to agree on a way to achieve deficit reduction measures. As everyone knows now, it has not happened and this supposed “super” committee did exactly what many thought would happen, fail to agree along party lines.

Now what? That seems to be the $64,000 question that nobody has an answer to. The Secretary of Defense released the following statement the other day.

Statement by Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta on Supercommittee Negotiations
The failure of the Congressional Supercommittee to reach an agreement on deficit reduction is a setback for the country’s efforts to achieve fiscal responsibility while protecting our national security. If Congress fails to act over the next year, the Department of Defense will face devastating, automatic, across-the-board cuts that will tear a seam in the nation’s defense.
Despite the danger posed by sequestration, I join the President in his call for Congress to avoid an easy way out of this crisis. Congress cannot simply turn off the sequester mechanism, but instead must pass deficit reduction at least equal to the $1.2 trillion it was charged to pass under the Budget Control Act.
In my four decades involved with public service, I have never been more concerned about the ability of Congress to forge common-sense solutions to the nation’s pressing problems. Since becoming Secretary of Defense, I have made it clear that the Department has a responsibility to help the country get its fiscal house in order — and we are doing that. I have been leading a strategy-driven effort to achieve the more than $450 billion in cuts over 10 years required by the Budget Control Act. We will move ahead with that plan.
But as Secretary of Defense, my primary responsibility is to protect the security of the nation. The half-trillion in additional cuts demanded by sequester would lead to a hollow force incapable of sustaining the missions it is assigned. If implemented, sequester would also jeopardize our ability to provide our troops and their families with the benefits and the support they have been promised. Our troops deserve better, and our nation demands better.

There is a lot of doom and gloom on the horizon if the military goes through the cuts, that as of right now it looks like they will. Nobody can see the future but based on what we have seen from our Government leadership (to include Congress) I am afraid it is not going to torn out well for our country’s security or us as a society and our safety.

After three days of debate, the House passed a $649.2 billion defense spending bill (H.R. 2219) for fiscal 2012. The bill passed 336-87.

The bill would provide $530.5 billion for the Pentagon, $8.9 billion less than President Obama requested but $17 billion more than fiscal 2011 levels. It also includes $118.7 billion for ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is approximately $40 billion less than current funding.

The bill provides:

• Funding for a 1.6 percent military pay raise
• $32.2 billion for the Defense Health Program
• $5.9 billion to purchase 32 F-35 jets but includes no money for an alternate engine
• $453 million for production of the M1A2 SEP Abrams tank. Members rejected White House efforts to temporarily cease production of the tank and provided $272 million more than Obama requested.
• Approximately $10 billion for missile defense programs

An amendment that would prohibit prisoners currently held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, from being transferred to the United States was adopted as well as one that would prohibit the use of funds to implement a training curriculum for military chaplains related to the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

The House also adopted a series of amendments aimed at boosting spending for research on post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, prostate cancer and illnesses affecting veterans of the first Gulf War.

Next Action: The Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee is still holding hearings related to their version of the defense spending bill. Because the Senate has not adopted a fiscal 2012 budget resolution that would set top-line spending limits, most of their work will remain on hold.