In a conversation with defense reporters this morning Sen. Jack Reed (chair of the Senate Armed Services' seapower committee) said he is confident that President Obama is carefully weighing all the options for Afghanistan and will unveil a long-term plan -- "not just a message, but a plan" -- soon.
But he also said that lawmakers and the public need to remember that "the financial costs of this are going to be significant and need to be considered," which might mean cuts in other large weapons systems and military non-war programs as early as next year.
When pressed Reed would not name any likely candidates, noting that there are no clear targets for budget cuts (unlike this time last year, he said, when the F-22 was already being eyed up for cost-cutting plans). But he said that personnel costs and warfighting needs will be protected from any such trims, leaving plenty of other programs in jeopardy.
So defense industry experts who hoped this year's defense budget battles -- which saw billions in "wasteful legacy programs" pulled away -- were the end of belt-tightening at the Pentagon may be facing bad news in February, when the fiscal 2011 budget proposal is put forward.
One thing Reed doesn't see in the near future: An increase in defense spending above expected adjustments. "With the overall economy still struggling, it's difficult to see a big increase in the defense budget for next year," he said.
[PHOTO: Associated Press]
Missing Trillions
Who really cares what the Pentagon does with their billions or Trillions certainly not the American people?
The day before 9/11 Mr. Rumsfeld announced that $2.3 Trillion (I’ll repeat that: $2.3 Trillion!) had disappeared from the coffers of the Pentagon. Where was the outrage in the media and the people for that matter? Then in 2003 $1 Trillion disappeared. We are supposed to believe that all this money was simply misplaced through bad accounting practices! It vanished into the blue, as 9/11 just happened out of the blue? Oh really? Do they take us for complete morons? Do we have to accept that this level of incompetence is normal? Well apparently they do. The question is: where did that money go, or better still, who took it? But whoever took it, knew it would soon be forgotten. And it was – as was the handful of critical questions concerning 9/11. A lucky coincidence that; that the announcement was made the day before 9/11! Not that the genuflecting, subservient, groveling, incompetent media would have done anything about it. As I said; who really cares?