Hawks Lose It Over Supercommittee
Mass hysteria in Washington over the possibility of real belt-tightening for the Department of Defense reached a fever pitch this week when the secretary of defense suggested the country could be attacked if Congress cut his budget.
If the so-called supercommittee fails to come up with the prescribed deficit-reduction measures by Turkey Day, then it will trigger major cuts in the growth of spending for the Pentagon. Those are the rules put into place by Congress last summer. If the worst happens, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Thursday, it will weaken the armed forces to the point it would embolden our enemies.
“In effect, it invites aggression,” he said in a news conference Nov. 10. The National Journal’s Yochi Dreazen called it “arguably the strongest rhetorical weapon in his arsenal.” That is a nice way of saying it was classic Dick Cheney: say the enemy will attack unless you get what you want.
Dreazen also noted this was Panetta’s “last — and strongest — card in his deck.” But certainly it won’t be the last time we hear it. Not with an army of self-interested congressmen backed by a gaggle of right-wing think tanks, which, even in struggling economic times, always seem to have limitless resources to host myriad luncheons in their pricey downtown digs to talk about such matters as whether public school teachers are overpaid, why not everyone deserves affordable health care, or why Iran and China are the next fronts in the Global War on Terror.
The mere prospect of losing any of that grease sliding through the massive defense industry apparatus in Washington has Republicans running around like Chicken Littles, saying the most extraordinary things.
“I’m convinced that if this so-called supercommittee fails and sequestration is triggered, it will mean undoing the greatest military force in the history of humanity,” Rep. Trent Franks, R-Arizona, exclaimed recently.
Warning against more potential cuts, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, seemed to suggest to a Hudson Institute audience on Nov. 9 that we aren’t sacrificing enough of the rest of the budget to pay for our superior military.
Here’s the point: Other nations face economic and fiscal challenges just like we do. Yet they are making the investments in military capabilities they think they need.
China still has hundreds of millions of people in poverty, yet it’s made huge investments to upgrade its military forces. Iran has been willing to endure years of economic sanctions in order to pursue its nuclear weapons program. And North Korea has literally been starving its own people to feed its own military-industrial complex.
How many eyebrows were raised in the room after that invocation we’ll never know.
“I hope the supercommittee works, but if it fails let’s don’t destroy the Defense Department,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, one of the military’s biggest surrogates in the Senate.
“We’re talking about securing America’s future — as we pull back from that, you’re going to see other countries take our place. And as other countries take our place, you’re going to see our economic role diminish as well as our military role,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-California, who joined fellow members of Congress, including Graham and Sen. John Kyl, R-Arizona, in a September event on the Hill sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Foreign Policy Initiative, a think tank founded in 2009 by Bill Kristol, Robert Kagan, and others closely associated with the Bush war policy.
The three groups say they have formed a joint effort called “Defending Defense,” but it sounds like they’re just defending the status quo, which almost everyone in the Washington defense establishment is trying to do. These guys are just more overt about wanting to “sustain America’s preeminent military position in a dangerous world.” They are the most vocal about ratcheting up the aggression toward Iran and China. Steep budget cuts at the DoD would certainly not jibe with their long-term strategy goals in the Middle East or Asia.
Not surprisingly, members of Congress who have depended on these right-wing groups to get where they are today have come out swinging against budget cuts they know so little about. Rep. Allen West, R-Florida, a celebrity among the far right, has his own ( mixed) military record to stand on, but he seems to have little more than rhetorical flair when it comes to understanding the budget, and even that is wanting.
“Not just so much from a strategic level, but also from a tactical level, through the operational level, back up to the strategic level, we have to go back and start developing a strategy first and foremost before we start looking to the military and basing the military upon the budget, or basing the military upon the numbers,” he told his Defending Defense audience.
Mitt Romney has become a favorite of the Washington Republican establishment crowd, particularly neoconservatives still haunting the halls of political power. Alas, he has enlisted one of the most connected apologists for the Bush-Cheney war policy — Eliot Cohen — as a top national security adviser.
Here’s what Mitt had to say about the prospects for budget-cutting at the Pentagon in his major foreign policy speech on Oct. 7:
As president, on Day One, I will focus on rebuilding America’s economy. I will reverse President Obama’s massive defense cuts. Time and again, we have seen attempts to balance the budget by weakening our military only lead to a far higher price, not only in treasure, but in blood. …
I will reverse the hollowing of our Navy and announce an initiative to increase the shipbuilding rate from 9 per year to 15. I will begin reversing Obama-era cuts to national missile defense and prioritize the full deployment of a multilayered national ballistic missile defense system. I will order the formulation of a national cybersecurity strategy, to deter and defend against the growing threats of militarized cyber-attacks, cyber-terrorism, and cyber-espionage.
Romney’s “plans” sound ill-informed, supercilious, and drafted by committee, which they probably were. We know that because the speech was littered with tons of shopworn clichés and hand-me-down hubris (can we even afford that these days?), familiar trademarks of his newfound friends in the right-wing foreign policy community.
Otherwise, would he really be saying stuff like this?
I am here today to tell you that I am guided by one overwhelming conviction and passion: this century must be an American Century. In an American Century, America has the strongest economy and the strongest military in the world. In an American Century, America leads the free world and the free world leads the entire world. …
America must lead the world, or someone else will.
But nothing says hyperbole like Frank Gaffney, head of the Center for Security Policy. Interestingly, Gaffney, who has spent the last several years engaging in Islamophobic fearmongering — even at one point spreading a rumor that the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was being taken over by the Muslim Brotherhood — was given a soapbox last weekend on C-SPAN.
The issue: defense budget cuts. Gaffney’s message: we’re doomed.
“I think he’s understating the danger,” Gaffney said of Panetta’s recent warnings. “I’m really concerned, I have to tell you, that we are approaching the point that we’re looking at eviscerating the military, not just hollowing it out.” He continued:
This isn’t simply happening in a vacuum … it’s happening against a backdrop of a world that is becoming, I believe, vastly more dangerous by the day. Indeed, I think there is a very high probability that before the next election we’ll see a major regional war breaking out in the Middle East, the next war for the survival of the state of Israel, I think.
If we are in fact inviting aggression, as the secretary said, by taking steps that make us appear to be a paper tiger or at least unable to defend our interests or protect our allies … that does make this dynamic that is already in evidence in particular in the Middle East, and in various other places around the world, vastly more dangerous.
Best take a chill pill, Frank. But he won’t. As Winslow Wheeler, who has been watching this Washington fan-dancing for more than 30 years, says, these think tanks and Washington pols are programmed to hyperventilate anytime the growth of military spending is questioned.
And this is the first time in many years that the defense budget has come under any real scrutiny at all.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” said Wheeler, director of the Strauss Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information. “Nothing else explains the wild rhetoric and data-cooked claims that industry and the politicians in the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, and ‘think’ tanks are yelling from the rooftops.”
Here Is What We Know
The deficit-reduction plan passed by Congress and signed into law in August called for $1 trillion in federal budget cuts, including $450 billion in reductions from the DoD budget over 10 years. A supercommittee was created, split down the middle with Democrats and Republicans. They are to find an additional $1.5 trillion in reductions by Nov. 23 or their failure to do so will trigger automatic cuts, including an additional $600 billion to the military, beginning in 2013.
So far no one — including Panetta — has said how the current reduction scheme, an approximately 7 to 8 percent drop from the annual current budget trajectory of $700 billion a year, will be implemented. In fact, aside from some “guiding principles” outlined in an interview with The New York Times this week, Panetta has said that a more elaborate plan will not be unveiled until December at the earliest.
Using those broad guidelines, Panetta told the Times that the Pentagon may consider additional base closures, bringing a number of troops home from Europe, and reducing the nuclear arsenal, which it is already bound to do under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with the Russians.
He also noted that there might be room to reform the military’s retirement benefits program, including the TRICARE health care benefits for active-duty personnel and retirees. TRICARE spending has nearly doubled to $50 billion a year over the last 10 years while the program has not been changed in the last century, say experts, who suggest that more than $1.5 trillion could be saved over the next 25 years if TRICARE is reformed. Much of that would be bringing patients’ fees and co-pays up to private industry standards.
Already, ground forces are supposed to decrease by a modest 30,000 for the Army and 15,400 for Marine Corps. Panetta said they might consider more reductions — a plan, by the way, which is fully endorsed by the military’s favorite think tank, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), which says in a recent report [.pdf] that the demand for those forces is shrinking as the wars wind down and future needs are more focused on Special Forces, Air Force drones, and the Navy. CNAS, however, also says the military would be at “high risk” if it went over $550 billion in cuts in 10 years.
By the way, Panetta also said he would be maintaining if not increasing the budget for drones and Special Forces. According to a detailed column by invaluable defense writer Walter Pincus on Nov. 1, Special Forces are supposed to increase from 2,600 to 3,600 over the next three years, with a 7 percent budget increase over fiscal 2011. Doesn’t sound like much of a “hollowing out” — the new buzz phrase for the anti-cutting crowd — to me.
In fairness, without a final number on the cuts the Pentagon will be forced to make, it is difficult for Panetta to be clearer. He may not have to make those difficult decisions anytime soon, however. Sens. Graham and John McCain, R-Arizona, have vowed to pass a law to stave off the effects of the “trigger” on the defense budget if the supercommittee does not come up with a plan on time (which looks increasingly likely).
That hasn’t stopped Panetta from acting like a Cassandra everywhere outside The New York Times editorial board conference room.
“What we’re seeing is an Indonesian shadow play on the debate over defense,” said Gordon Adams, foreign policy professor at American University. “The reality behind the shadow play is the defense budget is going down.
“This is called a ‘build-down.’ If you look at the history of our experiences with build-downs, build-downs happened and we survive them,” he said at a recent CNAS conference, pointing to military spending decreases in both the first Bush administration and the Clinton administration. “And we survived that build-down. The military that survived that build-down was the same force that used Saddam Hussein as a speed bump.’’
Wheeler points out that if the “trigger” stays in place and the deepest cuts are implemented, it will merely take the budget down to 2007 spending levels. “I do not recall anyone declaring our national security being ‘imperiled’ at that spending level in 2007,” Wheeler wrote.
“In fact, that level of spending for the ‘base’ (non-war) Pentagon budget was a 16-year high — calculated using ‘constant’ Defense Department dollars intended to compensate for inflation. Not exactly the result of ‘hacking away.’”
But it makes for better soundbites, no? There is no telling how long this will all drag on, perhaps until after the 2012 election. Which is good for the think tanks and pols — and bad for the voter who’s heard this hysterical warbling too many times before.
Follow Kelley Vlahos on Twitter @KelleyBVlahos.
Read more by Kelley B. Vlahos
- Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Film – May 13th, 2013
- Iraq’s Generation Hell – May 6th, 2013
- Jeremy Scahill’s ‘Dirty’ Work – April 29th, 2013
- People Vanishing from Iraq War History – April 22nd, 2013
- A Kangaroo Court at Last – April 15th, 2013
skulz fontaine
November 14th, 2011 at 10:22 pm
"If the worst happens, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Thursday, it will weaken the armed forces to the point it would embolden our enemies."
I'm making a quantum leap of assumption here, "we" have enemies? Meaning Amerika?
No way! How could that be? Wouldn't have anything to do with endless wars of naked aggression. Illegal rendition. Illegal detention. Torture. Nah, that couldn't possibly be the reason…
Wait I know, Amerika has enemies on account of Lindsey Graham is an interminable smarmy little prick.
guest
November 14th, 2011 at 11:15 pm
I just can't wait till America starts really locking horns with China.It will just be unbelievable,like a fifty year old boxer going up against a twenty year old champ.
WhichWaldenPond
November 15th, 2011 at 3:02 am
Mitt Romney's rhetoric isn't rational: "On Day One, I will focus on rebuilding America’s economy. I will reverse President Obama’s massive defense cuts." Imagine your spouse saying with a grand flourish, "Tomorrow I will focus on rebuilding our household economy by spending most of our money on guard dogs, guns and security cameras." Most of us, with a spouse like that, would first call a psychiatrist and then call a divorce lawyer. But many Americans, even unemployed Americans, foreclosed or sick with illnesses they cannot afford to treat, will cheer, wave flags and vote for Mitt Romney.
MvGuy
November 15th, 2011 at 7:40 am
Perhaps the Pentagon can get some of that $2,3OO,OOO,OOO,OOO.OO that went missing.. that was noticed by Sec. Rumsfeld on Sept.10 2001…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kpWqdPMjmo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQZmbxhPl2A&NR… Think of it……. That missing $2.3 trillion would make up the missing $5O,OOO,OOO,OOO.OO for 44 years…
We are so lucky to have Kelly on the prowl for us here at antiwar.com ferreting out the terror our system wreaks on ordinary citizens and their families……. Thanks Kelly….!!
J. Clifton
November 15th, 2011 at 7:49 am
I'm hoping the sequestration is triggered, but Congress and the White House shows its true colors by wiggling out of the spending slowdowns (on both the military and domestic sides). It will prove once again how the "let's increase debt and taxes now, and PROMISE spending cuts down the road" deals always fail to go ahead with any real cuts. It might quickly re-embolden the Tea Party folks, who knew the spenders would welsh on the deal, and who alternatively demanded upfront spending reductions, and no more tax and debt increases for a change.
liberranter
November 15th, 2011 at 11:09 am
I doubt it will ever happen. The uniformed chickenhawks and their bankster puppeteers know better than to pick a REAL fight with an enemy that will kick their asses into the next galaxy should they choose to get belligerent. Besides, even these losers are smart enough to realize that ALL of the war machine's technological foundational components are manufactured, if not in China proper, then in countries under Chinese sway and that if they chose to turn the Pacific Rim into a war zone, they wouldn't be able to sustain the battle for more than a week.
MoT
November 15th, 2011 at 11:13 am
That's the madness of it all. They want to spend more of your, your children, and your grand children's money just so you can feel secure in your unemployment line or have the privilege of being watched over at gun point as your house is foreclosed upon.
andy
November 15th, 2011 at 3:33 pm
America only attacks weak countries, like Serbia and Iraq. Countries that can't fight back. Its the standard rule of all bullies.
andy
November 15th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
"Embolden our enemies"…
Whose going to attack? Canada? Mexico? These guys need a geography lesson.
Jamie
November 15th, 2011 at 3:45 pm
What about the over 2 trillion dollars stolen by the military with all evidence being destroyed on 9/11.Just stoping the wars and protecting Israel from problems they cause would save large.The millitary needs to worry about defence not offence.All we hear is warmongering against Iran Pakistan and even China.America is not here to protect Israel from problems they cause.An even handed approach in the Mid East and the world is nessasary.IOsrael is allowed to illegaly have nucular weapons and anyone else is supposed to be attacked because of what Israel says and the IAEA an American puppet thats lieing.America could cut the military in half if they stoped trying to be an evil empire.The citizens now all the wars are bull and you are trying to start more.Disarm Israel would be a start.Let them go back to 1967 borders and things will be better in the Mid East.Get rid os AIPAC so the congress is not bought and paid for,and does what its meant to protect America.If you have enemies its because of your actions America was once liked everywere including the Mid East.All your problems are your fault.FACT
Jamie
November 15th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Block people for writing things they learn from your site and look further into.No matter the crimes or the over 65 UN resolutions ignored by Israel not to mention the over 30 American vetos for them more than any other country has used all for Israel a country that wants war not peace.
Jamie
November 15th, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Tell things that can be found other places but never tell the truth about the dangers Israel brings the entire world.Just like America stop[ the real truth by blocking people.I asked long ago to bloak me its a wast of time here when they don't let you state facts.What happened to freedom of speach guess that law ,means nothing to you.By the way don't call at the wrong time someone might be asleep and yell at you over the phone like a real big man.
JLS
November 15th, 2011 at 4:33 pm
"If the so-called supercommittee fails to come up with the prescribed deficit-reduction measures by Turkey Day, then it will trigger major cuts in the growth of spending for the Pentagon."
Except that our government doesn't obey it's own laws and rules. They won't actually cut anything, they'll figure out some way to weasel out of it. This government is utterly incapable of changing it's course.
SameOld Warcrimes
November 15th, 2011 at 7:28 pm
scary part is THEY will probably attack if their budgets get cut…
Mick
November 15th, 2011 at 7:51 pm
What are you talking about our taxes as a percentage of GDP is the lowest since World War 2. what we should is obvious. People want their Medicare and SS. Including and most of the hypocritical Tea Party people. So we do what anybody would do. We tax. Maybe we need a VAT. How about taxing the top people who have got all the gains for the last thirty years. If we taxed for these wars these hypocritical war mongers might stop this insanity.
John_Muhammad
November 15th, 2011 at 8:21 pm
And how do they supposed these suddenly 'emboldened' enemies are going to attack us? Will they strike us at our various overseas military installations? Perhaps, but then again, those are military targets and therefore fair game for pretty much anyone to take a shot at if they think got game. Will our 'emboldened' enemies infiltrate into the US and strike us domestically? Perhaps- and how exactly will they get here, through Customs, or through our non-existent southern border with Mexico?
The point is, the military NEEDS to have its budget reduces by a LOT- it has an operating budget each year and is supposed to be able to conduct operations based on THAT budget, not by endless 'emergency spending provisions' that bleed our nation dry. If we can't afford to operate within our budget, we don't just spend more, we reduce our operations to fit within what we have to spend.
I'm pretty sure the local Afghans and Iraqis who are arrayed against us aren't able to just print money out of thin air and call it legitimate- if they have $100 to spend on guns and ammo, that's what they'll buy and scale the operation to fit that amount of supplies. And guess what- I'd be willing to bet they're operating within what they can afford- and guess what again? They're winning.
richard
November 21st, 2011 at 11:28 am
i wish i had seen this article three weeks earlier…now my idea will have to wait until 11/11/12.
the idea is "eat a twig for a vet". in honor of making our military priorities more in line with north korea's, on veteran's day, we should eat twigs instead of regular burgers or whatever.
http://www.eatatwigforavet.org
ok i still need to register the domain, but it's a great idea.
Bob D
November 22nd, 2011 at 11:39 am
Looks like Kelly is drinking the cool-aid. 1/2 trillion dollars over 10 years not starting until after the elections in 2013? Give me a break. Thats 50 billion a year. Coffee and Cake money to the Military. They might have to expand slower.