Since the May 2, 2011, Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, President Obama has lauded the mission’s success and championed U.S. Special Forces as a major component of future military operations. Both Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta have stressed that, as conventional forces draw down in Iraq and Afghanistan, special operations units will become an increasingly significant component of America’s national security strategy. However, the relationship between conventional and nonconventional forces is not so simple. The President makes the assumption that lowering the number of active-duty …
The future is not bright for the U.S. military. Yesterday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave America a glimpse of the half-trillion dollars in defense spending cuts requested by the Obama Administration and detailed how the U.S. military’s capabilities would be affected in practical terms. The result is a slashed and burned military that woefully lacks the forces it needs to meet America’s security challenges on a global scale. On the ground, in the sea, and in the air, American forces will shrink drastically — the Army will shrink by 72,000 …
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta today laid out details of a plan to cut a half a trillion dollars from defense spending. That’s in addition to the half-trillion in cuts required under the Budget Control Act. The Wall Street Journal reports that, as part of the plan to cope with funding cuts and reduced troop levels, the U.S. military plans to increase the U.S. fleet of unmanned drones by 30 percent and increasingly rely on special-operations teams based around the globe. Unfortunately, that won’t be sufficient to manage America’s defense needs. …
In his straightforward and scathing piece for today’s New York Post, Heritage senior fellow Peter Brookes discussed the devastating impact a sequestration of the defense budget would have on America’s military. If the congressional “super committee” cannot find $1.5 trillion in budget savings over the next 10 years by November 23, the law would trigger automatic spending “sequestration” cuts of $1.2 trillion—of which roughly half a trillion or more would be from the defense budget. This spells major trouble for U.S. national security. Since President Obama has been in office, …
Last week was a dubious one for the world’s most advanced militaries. In the U.S., Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testified before the House Armed Service Committee on October 13, saying that any further cuts to defense will hollow out the force and risk national security. Meanwhile, in Israel, Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned on October 10 against current defense cuts to the Israel Defense Force, saying that Israel’s missile defense system (Iron Dome) would be slowed and one-third of the Israel Air Force and 20 percent of its Merkava tanks …
Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe. The power of civil society – Ed Feulner, The Washington Times New State Laws Could Impact 2012 Vote – Sam Favate, Wall Street Journal The Best Countries for Business – Kurt Badenhausen, Forbes Former attorney general visits Hall residents – Ashley Fielding, Gainesville Times Democrats Tax the Poor With the “Durbin Fee” – John Hayward, Human Events Leon Panetta in Israel: Will his urgent messages bring action? – Howard LaFranchi, …
Consider it a warning from the highest levels of the U.S. government. Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta held a joint press event in Washington in which they cautioned that U.S. debt is jeopardizing America’s ability to ensure national security and preserve its interests abroad. Under the Budget Control Act of 2011—the debt ceiling agreement enacted earlier this month—$350 billion in cuts to defense spending must be made over 10 years. But if Congress doesn’t reach an agreement on $1.5 trillion in deficit savings, $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts would …
During a joint press event today in Washington, the Secretaries of Defense and State agreed that politicians must tackle the elephant in the room to reduce America’s crushing debt: mandatory spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which account for more than 60 percent of the entire federal budget. As the Secretaries correctly suggest, America cannot afford to allow these programs to consume ever larger portions of the federal budget and the nation’s income, and delaying reforms would inevitably add to the pressure to shortchange national security funding. This threat …
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is famous for approaching her various jobs with discipline, and discipline was the message she repeatedly conveyed at the National Defense University Tuesday morning in her “conversation” with Secretary of Defense (and former chief of staff to her husband) Leon Panetta: The world needs U.S. leadership, even in tough budgetary times. Many of Clinton’s remarks were directed at the congressional “Super Committee” looking at budget cuts. She urged Congress not to let the deficit get in the way of U.S. global engagement, and not to …
According to news reports, “Pentagon chief Leon Panetta vowed Wednesday to fight any across-the-board cuts to defense spending that could be triggered in the next phase of deficit reduction that he says could do ‘real damage to our security, our troops and their families, and our ability to protect the nation.” That makes him a hero at the Pentagon, right? And, it puts him on record as bucking his own President, who has long talked about putting big defense cuts “on the table,” right? Probably not. The flimflam man calls …
