[Peace-discuss] WaPo: $1 trillion in Pentagon cuts = no more Afghanistans

[Robert Naiman]

[...]
To find $1 trillion in savings, the White House would have to make
major changes to its current global military strategy, under which the
Pentagon should be able to fight two wars like Iraq and Afghanistan
simultaneously.

Scaling back that requirement would allow for big cuts to the Army and
Marine Corps, which collectively have grown by about 92,000 men and
women since 2001 and would probably have to shrink at a minimum to
pre-2001 levels. In shrinking the force, Congress would be betting
that the Afghan war will wind down as planned and that the country
will not be drawn into any big, costly counterinsurgency wars in the
next 10 to 15 years.

A smaller military would have less of a presence in East Asia.
[...]

- Debt 'Trigger' Has Pentagon Budget In Its Crosshairs
Greg Jaffe, Washington Post, August 1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pentagon-in-cross-hairs-of-debt-trigger/2011/08/01/gIQAhSt9nI_story.html

--
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org