Opinion> Daily Editorials> What Military Cutbacks

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What Military Cutbacks?

One of the persistent myths about the year-old Obama presidency is that the Democratic commander in chief is intent on cutting the U.S. defense budget so that the Pentagon will go begging and our nation will be defenseless. Letters to the Daily News routinely sound the alarm.

A reader in Destin, Fla., warned last October that the president wants to "cut America's defense spending, even if China and Russia don't cut theirs." A reader in Crestview announced last March he was "declaring war" on military cutbacks. "Increased defense spending," he argued, "is the kind of real stimulus that our national economy and security need in this dangerous world."

If increased defense spending is the answer to our economic woes, then our problems are solved. Under President Obama, military spending has surged.

It's also being done more honestly. In years past, defense secretaries have pretended that the costs of waging active wars are separate from the "baseline" military budget and have not included those costs in annual budget figures, leaving them to supplemental appropriations.

However, the figure for the projected 2011 military budget is forthrightly estimated at $708.2 billion, which consists of $548.9 billion in the "baseline" budget and $159.3 billion for "overseas contingency operations" — e.g., the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

There's an additional $33 billion to pay for the 30,000 extra troops the president is sending to Afghanistan, bringing the grand total to $741.2 billion.

The Center for a New American Security calculates that, when adjusted for inflation, this military budget is 13 percent higher than at the peak of the Korean War, 33 percent higher than at the peak of the Vietnam War, 12 percent higher than at the peak of the Cold War and 64 percent higher than the Cold War average.

And big-ticket weapons programs are on the rise: $25 billion for 10 new ships, another $10 billion for missile defense and $11 billion for 43 more F-35 fighter planes.

Whatever President Obama's other failings may be, he is not skimping on the military.

REPRINTED FROM THE NORTHWEST FLORIDA DAILY NEWS.

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