LAST WEEK President Obama offered Persian Gulf countries an “ironclad commitment” that the United States will “use all elements of power . . . to deter and confront external aggression” against them.
President Promises Military Support... Threatens To Veto Military Funding
The Washington Post By Fred Hiatt Editorial page editor May 17, 2015 Read the full article here.
LAST WEEK President Obama offered Persian Gulf countries an "ironclad commitment" that the United States will "use all elements of power . . . to deter and confront external aggression" against them.
It was just the latest in a series of military commitments and actions from a president who declared in 2011 that "the tide of war is receding" and that the United States could concentrate on "nation-building here at home."...
...The world depends on the United States, and wishing that we could withdraw — or declaring that we will engage only in regions that we deem vital — turns out not to be a basis for sustainable policy....
That recognition, though, has yet to lead to its inevitable corollary: If we are going to ask the military to do more, we will have to pay more. Obama is threatening to veto the annual defense authorization bill, which the House approved Friday 269 to 151, because it would give him too much money.
Actually, it would give him about as much money as he requested. But because that amount would bust budget caps, and because Congress hasn't agreed to comparably bust the budget caps for domestic spending, Obama says he'd rather not have the funds.
"Why?" his defense secretary, Ashton Carter, asked in testimony to the Senate this month. "Because the strength of our nation depends on the strength of our economy, and a strong military depends on a strong educational system, thriving private-sector businesses, and innovative research. And because that principle — matching defense increases with non-defense increases dollar-for-dollar — was a basic condition of the bipartisan agreement we got in 2013, the president sees no reason why we shouldn't uphold those same principles in any agreement now."...
And so the commander in chief has to decide: Will he shoot the hostage?
Because national security already is suffering.... Defense spending has been cut 21 percent in real terms over the past four years, according to Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and an advocate of the budget passed Friday.
As the military is asked to do more with fewer resources for training, the result will be more casualties....
It isn't right to ask the military to protect us in the real world while operating on a budget designed for a world in which the tide of war is receding.
