Military
Politics, Claims and Counter-Claims: How to Evaluate the Budget
February 9, 2012
Monday’s release of the administration’s budget request for 2013 will feature piles of documents and layers of political claims and counter-claims. To evaluate them, ask whether proposals meet three tests: The need for spending that secures the economy that undergirds our security as well as keeps us safe. The need for spending priorities that are [...]
Romney’s Defense Spending Plans
February 8, 2012
As the White House prepares to release its budget on Monday, the next few days will likely see conservatives criticizing current plans for military spending while outlining their own views. Experts say attacks are more about politics than security-particularly since the budget numbers grow from a plan that was passed by Congress and paired with [...]
First Defense Strategy, Now Defense Budget
January 26, 2012
Today Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey will preview the administration’s defense budget for the 2013 fiscal year. While the specifics aren’t yet available, early reports indicate relatively small cuts to military spending. Those cuts will be made according to the defense strategic guidance released earlier this month by the [...]
The Best Defense: Protecting America In An Age Of Austerity
January 10, 2012
The Center for National Policy hosted a discussion with Lawrence Korb, Spencer Ackerman and National Security Network Executive Director Heather Hurlburt about what might come next after Secretary of Defense and former CNP Chairman Leon Panetta has issued new Strategic Guidance that promises to redefine the mission and means of how best to protect American [...]
Ten Years is Enough: National Security Leaders on Guantanamo
January 9, 2012
Ten years after the opening of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, political debate rages on. But the military who run it and security officials who tracked its inmates have a surprisingly united view: the facility should be closed and as many of its inmates as possible tried in U.S. courts. With David Petraeus pointing [...]
Heather Hurtburt Quoted In Media Matters On Defense Budget
January 6, 2012
“How Dramatic Are These Changes? Not very. 2012 and 2013 Pentagon spending will represent the first real declines in military spending in more than a decade; but the total 8% cut envisaged is less than the Reagan defense builddown of the 1980s (yes, you read that right). As Colin Powell said: “When the Cold War ended 20 years ago, when I was chairman and Mr. Cheney was secretary of Defense, we cut the defense budget by 25 percent. And we reduced the force by 500,000 active duty soldiers, so it can be done. Now, how fast you can do it and what you have to cut out remains to be seen, but I don’t think the defense budget can be made, you know, sacrosanct and it can’t be touched.”
Pruning the Pentagon
By Jacob Stokes January 6, 2012 | The American Prospect Yesterday, President Barack Obama crossed the Potomac River to hold a press conference at the Pentagon, the first time a president has addressed reporters from the military’s headquarters. Flanked by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey, and other senior military leaders, [...]
Pentagon Strategy Review: Why It Matters
January 5, 2012
By Heather Hurlburt, Huffington Post January 5, 2012
21st-Century Strategy, With Budget to Match
Today, President Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey will roll out the results of a nine-month strategy review, aimed at modernizing U.S. military strategy to reflect a strategic pivot toward Asia, the end of a decade of 9/11-inspired invasions and occupations, and a tight fiscal environment. The spending shifts [...]
Heather Hurlburt Quoted On Firedoglake On Military Budget
Heather Hurlburt argues that this is more of a strategy review, focused on moving out of the post-9/11 era of ground operations, rebalancing the presence toward Asia and the Pacific and away from Europe, and doing the analysis to make “hard choices” on the future rather than throwing money at every problem. But even she admits that these are not major changes, significantly smaller than the drawdown after Korea, Vietnam or the Cold War. And that holds even if the trigger gets pulled. The Pentagon budget would still be at FY2007 levels in a post-trigger environment
