Thread: Boehner: No More Defense Cuts $700 billion + Libya Iraq Afgh

Boehner: No More Defense Cuts

Thursday, 27 Oct 2011 05:22 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top congressional Republicans, Democrats and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta are united in a single message to the special bipartisan committee looking for ways to cut the deficit: Leave military spending alone.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Thursday that the Pentagon budget was cut more than enough in the debt accord this past summer by President Barack Obama and Republicans.

That deal calls for cuts of $350 billion in projected spending over 10 years. The Pentagon is planning on reductions of about $450 billion.

"I would argue that they've taken more than their fair share of the hits," Boehner said.

His comments echo the argument made by others lawmakers as well as Panetta, who in recent speeches and congressional testimony insisted that the Pentagon be spared further cuts.

Rising deficits and deep debt have forced the federal government to slash spending, even at the Pentagon.

The Department of Defense's budget has nearly doubled to $700 billion in the 10 years since the Sept. 11 attacks. Those numbers do not include the trillion-plus spent on the wars in Iraq and Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 12-member supercommittee has a mandate to come up with at least $1.2 trillion in overall spending cuts over 10 years. If it fails to do so by Nov. 23 or if Congress rejects its plan, then automatic, across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion kick in, with half coming from defense.

Panetta has called that the "doomsday mechanism" and lawmakers have warned of the dire consequences of such reductions that would mean about $1 trillion over 10 years.

In a speech Thursday, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said simply insisting on no more cuts is insufficient. He said lawmakers not only need to offer alternatives to the supercommittee, including raising revenue, but also be open to other options.

Otherwise, "defense is going to be crucified," he said.

Speaking to the American Enterprise Institute, Smith said, "If we don't step up and confront the problem with either revenue or spending outside the defense budget, give the supercommittee somewhere to go, give people who want to control the deficit, including our bond raters, somewhere to go, inevitably defense is going to be crushed."

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/Defe ... /id/415997

US Quietly Assumes Military Posture in Africa

Thursday, 27 Oct 2011 02:05 PM

NAIROBI, Kenya — The United States is using special forces advisers, drones, and tens of millions of dollars in military aid in Africa to combat a growing and multifaceted security threat, while playing a less obtrusive role and focusing once again on Somalia.

The United States is also providing intelligence and training to fight militants across the continent, from Mauritania in the west along the Atlantic Ocean, to Somalia in the east along the Indian Ocean.

The Pentagon is paying a lot more attention to Africa than in years past, analysts say.

"I think the security threats emanating from Africa are being taken more seriously than they have been before, and they're more real," said Jennifer Cooke, the director of the Africa program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Africa ... /id/415962

Panetta: US Will Boost Presence Against N. Korea

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 6:21 AM

SEOUL, South Korea — U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday called North Korea a "serious threat" and told U.S. troops that the Pentagon will strengthen its presence in this region to guard against North Korean provocations.

Panetta met with top U.S. commanders here. In an opinion piece published by a Korean newspaper before he arrived in Seoul, he wrote that the U.S. will continue to cooperate with South Korea as a bulwark against potential North Korean aggression, "and stand prepared to defeat" the North if it should attack.

"It is important to send this signal because North Korea remains a serious threat," he wrote.

The U.S. has 28,500 troops stationed here — holdovers from the Korean War that ended in 1953 with a truce but no peace treaty.

Panetta's characterization of the North as a serious threat was a bit less forceful than earlier in the week, when he called the North Koreans "reckless." That was before U.S. and North Korean diplomats completed talks in Geneva about resuming full-blown negotiations over the future of North Korea's nuclear program. Both sides said they had narrowed their differences, but no date was set for follow-up talks.

Throughout Panetta's Asia tour, which began Saturday in Indonesia and included a stop in Tokyo, he has repeated one central message: Coming budget cuts will not compel the U.S. to pull back its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

He sounded the same theme in remarks to sailors on board the USS Blue Ridge at Yokosuka naval base in Japan on Wednesday morning and upon his arrival in Seoul several hours later. He addressed about 300 U.S. and South Korean troops at the Yongsan army post in Seoul after meeting with Army Gen. J.D. Thurman, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea.

The U.S. will remain a Pacific power, Panetta said, and "isn't going anywhere."

In his opinion piece, Panetta wrote that the U.S. and South Korea are advancing their capabilities to deal with North Korean missile threats, boosting intelligence sharing and "strengthening" planning to counter North Korean provocations.

Panetta on Friday will attend an annual U.S.-South Korean review of alliance priorities, policies and structure. That will be preceded Thursday by a meeting of top military leaders, including the new chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey.

http://www.newsmaxworld.com/global_talk ... 13759.html

April 11, 2011

U.S. Military Spending vs. the World

Posted by Greg Scoblete at 9:57 AM



The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has a new report out highlighting global military expenditures. As the above chart indicates, the U.S. retains a healthy lead. http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments ... tsheet2010

Regionally, defense spending in Europe has fallen 2.8 percent while spending in South America has risen by 5.8 percent and in Africa by 5.2 percent. Brazil drove a lot of the South American growth. Asia rose only a modest 1.4 percent, which the Institute said was slower than previous years. Overall, global military expenditures ticked up slightly at 1.3 percent, the slowest growth rate since 2001.


http://www.realclearworld.com/blog/2011 ... world.html