Asia-Pacific Focus for Scaled-Down Military

President Barack Obama outlined a sweeping new plan for the military on Thursday, Jan. 5, that will cut the Defense Department’s budget by hundreds of billions of dollars, moving away from the strategy that was drafted up by the previous administration.

Making an appearance in the Pentagon building in Washington, D.C., Obama said, “Our military will be leaner, but the world must know the United States is going to maintain our military superiority with armed forces that are agile, flexible, and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats,” according to a transcript.

The plan entails focusing U.S. troops on the Asia and Pacific regions and notes that the United States will not be able to sustain more than one prolonged combat operation at the same time, similar to the wars fought in Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time.

In a trip to Australia in November, Obama said that the Asia-Pacific region was now a high priority for the United States, which was viewed as a challenge or warning to China’s increasing military power.

“Budget reductions will not come at the expense of that critical region,” Obama said of the Defense Department’s new focus on Asia and the Pacific.

The announcement comes just a few weeks after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta formally announced the end of the eight-year-long war in Iraq. The last several thousand combat troops have pulled out of the country.

“As a global force, our military will never be doing only one thing,” Panetta said. “It will be responsible for a range of missions and activities across the globe of varying scope, duration, and strategic priority.”

The result of the strategy will be to create a “flexible and adaptable” military force “that can respond quickly and effectively to a variety of contingencies and potential adversaries,” Panetta said.

Panetta said the United States will continue to invest in and develop technologies, including unmanned systems, space programs, and especially cyberspace defense.

In November, the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive released a report stating China-based hackers are “the world’s most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage.”

Last month, a report emerged that Chinese hackers stole months’ worth of data from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a group representing “the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations,” according to its website.

The strategy includes $487 billion in cuts over the next decade and, if Congress acts, another $500 billion in cuts to the Defense Department could be approved. The United States greatly increased its spending on defense since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, leading to 10 years of war.

Obama said that the military needs to reshape its priorities amid the current economic downturn while maintaining America’s global leadership, and added that the United States must rejuvenate its economic power. He said the United States needs to move beyond the “nation building” that took place in Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are slated to fully withdraw by 2014.

Past Mistakes Not Repeated

President Obama said the government would not make the same mistakes in the past when reducing military spending, including the periods in the 1970s and 1980s that followed the Vietnam War or after World War II.

“We will also remember the lessons of history and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past when our military was left ill-prepared for the future,” Obama said in a letter accompanying the announcement.

Thousands upon thousands of U.S. troops will likely be cut in the new plan, although it was not specifically outlined. Obama said the Pentagon will also phase out “outdated Cold War-era” intelligence, security, and counterterrorism systems, with more details coming out in the next several weeks.

Anticipating criticism over cutting the military’s budget, Obama defended the move in saying: “It will be easy to take issue with a particular change in a particular program.”

“But I’d encourage all of us to remember what President Eisenhower once said, that ‘each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs,’” Obama added.

• Anonymous

  America cannot afford not to reduce military expenditures.  Shifting resources and Increasing its military presence in the Asia Pacific will mean a cold war with China who will welcome the opportunity because this is the best stimulus for China to expand its military and to exhaust America in a matter of 10-20 years.  America is playing itself into China’s hands.