9/10/08

This week John McCain tried to make support for the Army’s Future Combat Systems program a litmus test for supporting our troops. Yet just two months ago McCain put forward a budget plan that explicitly proposed ending this and other Pentagon procurement programs. In fact, the promises that McCain has made on military spending and expanding the size of the force would explode the Pentagon budget. Which McCain are we supposed to believe? The one who claims he’ll cut spending in Washington, or the one whose proposals would add at least $25 billion a year to the Pentagon budget – enough to pay for outpatient healthcare for every veteran. If this sounds familiar, it should – eight years ago, President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld promised fiscal reform but brought us spiraling Pentagon spending and a looming procurement crisis. McCain’s spending plans offer more of the same.

John McCain’s own budget plan - the one that he claims will reform Washington – opposes the Future Combat System and claims he would cut $160 billion in spending . McCain’s plan submitted in July 2008 to the Washington Post specifically claims that balancing the budget “requires slowing outlay growth to 2.4 percent. The roughly $470 billion dollars (by 2013) in slower spending growth come from reduced deployments abroad ($150 billion; consistent with success in Iraq/Afghanistan that permits deployments to be cut by half -- hopefully more), slower discretionary spending in non-defense and Pentagon procurements ($160 billion; there are lots of procurements -- airborne laser, Globemaster, Future Combat System -- that should be ended and the entire Pentagon budget should be scrubbed).” In fact, Senator McCain has long been an opponent of the Future Combat System. [Washington Post, 7/14/08. The Hill, 4/05/05]

Yet, this week John McCain blasted Barack Obama for opposing the same program, claiming that it somehow means that Obama wants to reduce the size of the military. Barack Obama stated clearly that he would “cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending,” by “slowing the development of Future Combat Systems,” while also working separately to “increase the size of our military,” so the present strain on the armed forces would diminish. McCain misrepresented these separate positions, calling Obama a flip-flopper before audiences in Missouri “Of course, now he wants to increase it,” McCain told an audience in Lee’s Summit, Missouri on Monday. “But during the primary he told a liberal advocacy group that he’d cut defense spending by tens of billions of dollars.’” [CNN, 9/08/08]

McCain has made grandiose promises on defense that are not grounded in reality and represent the exact opposite of the fiscal reform that he will supposedly bring to the White House. John McCain has pledged to expand the ground forces by about 200,000 over current levels. He also says he will modernize the armed forces by “procuring advanced weapons systems.” Yet at the same time, McCain has pledged to control defense spending. This doesn’t add up. The CBO estimates that increasing the ground forces to the current goal of about 750,000 will cost about $110 billion over seven years; this is roughly $15 billion per year. Using the same projections, increasing the size of the ground forces by an additional 150,000 over this same period would cost an additional $175 billion or $25 billion per year. The costs would likely be much higher as McCain is proposing a 25 percent increase in the size of the ground forces and attracting that many volunteers will require significant funding. [Foreign Affairs, 11-12/08. John McCain.com 9/10/08. CBO, 4/16/07]

Quick Hits

The Washington Post details how the hunt for bin Laden has progressed and shifted over the past 7 years.

Two top al Qaeda operatives, including senior operatives Abu Haris, who leads al Qaeda operations in Pakistan’s federally administered tribal areas, and Abu Hamza, who coordinates al Qaeda activities in Peshawar, were reportedly killed in the U.S. missile strike in North Waziristan, Pakistan.”

Russia’s recognition of the Georgian breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia has fueled the drive of its own separatist movements, including in Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Komi and Chechnya.

North Korean spokespeople have denied that Kim Jong-il is seriously ill, after reports surfaced yesterday that he had suffered a stroke following his failure to appear at the military parade celebrating North Korea’s 60th anniversary.

Ronen Bergman, an Israeli reporter, has an op-ed on the decrease in suicide bombings as being evidence of a shift in al Qaeda tactics.

The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward series on the White House handling of Iraq continues with a story on President Bush’s leadership as “a man defined by his wars.”

Oil prices rose as OPEC announced a reduction in oil production, citing compliance with pre-existing quotas set in September 2007 rather than a response to the recent and rapid decline of prices.

A strong, 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck southern Iran, shaking the region as far as Dubai.

Jeff Stein has a post on possible attempts by military leaders to “handcuff Obama in Iraq” by trying to ensure that Bush administration policies continue under the next president.