Another flipflop for BUSH,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Military Cuts Are Implied in New Strategy
Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs Alter Agreement on U.S. Forces
_____Special Report_____
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 25, 2001; Page A01
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have revised the military strategy they adopted just a few weeks ago, a move that could lead to cuts in the number of U.S. troops, ships and planes stationed in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and elsewhere, Pentagon officials said yesterday.
One of the most significant changes in the key strategy and planning document is the removal of a sentence saying that U.S. forces stationed overseas should be capable of "swiftly defeating an enemy's effort with minimum reinforcement." That deletion points the way toward a smaller military than had been contemplated, and possibly to one less geared to operating overseas. |
