Here is a post from a Hawk and right winger on our defense budget and military priorities and needs. It is much along the lines what I have been saying for quite some time......
ayton Daily News
April 15, 2002
Defense Focus Switches From `How Much' To `How'
DEFENSE POLICY IS ADMITtedly a complex topic. To understand the issue, it
helps to keep five numbers in mind.
The first number is $750 billion. That's what all the world's nations
combined spend on defense, according to the "CIA World Factbook." It has
been declining most years--but slowly--since the end of the Cold War.
The second number is 3.2 percent. That's the part of the U.S. gross national
product that our country spends on defense. It has been slowly declining,
too, for the past decade. The percentage is small by historic standards.
During the Cold War it ranged from two to four times greater. It means we
can maintain our current defense budgets with little or no effect on the
U.S. economy. We're running at a comfortable pace.
The third number is $379 billion--the defense budget requested by the Bush
administration for fiscal 2003. It includes a $10 billion contingency fund
to fight terrorism. What's interesting about this number is that the United
States now spends as much on defense as everyone else in the world combined.
Rarely in history has a single country been so dominant. During the Cold
War, pundits argued over whether the Soviet Union or the United States was
ahead in the so-called arms race. Today there isn't even a race. It means
the United States can do things no one else can--such as transport thousands
of troops halfway around the world, build aircraft invisible to radar and
design bombs to land within a few feet of their target.
The fourth number is 17.6 percent. That is the rate at which China increased
its defense spending this year. It reminds us that, despite America's
predominance, there are countries willing to make the investment to
challenge us at least in some regions.
The fifth number is 3,061--the number of people killed at the World Trade
Center, the Pentagon and in Somerset County, Pa., on Sept. 11. This number
reminds us that, though the United States is supreme in traditional military
capabilities, hostile countries and terrorist groups still can strike
directly at America from halfway around the world with devastating results.
These numbers are important, but the biggest issues facing U.S. defense
officials today are not so much "how much" as they are "how"--that is how we
select, organize, train, plan and deploy our forces. We need to proceed
aggressively on military transformation to create the flexible, agile and
rapid-response military force required to counter the asymmetric threats we
now face.
Furthermore, organization is extremely important. The armed services, state
governments and even the private sector all must learn to work together in
new ways. Today, threats can come from many different sources, and even
seemingly weak adversaries can be dangerous.
Most of all, in the "post-post-Cold War" era, the United States needs
leaders who can point out threats and head them off early. Leadership and
decisiveness are critical in using our powerful--but finite--military forces
effectively.
Bruce Berkowitz is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. This year he
has been serving as a senior consultant in the Office of the Secretary of
Defense and as a scholar in residence at the Central Intelligence Agency's
Sherman Kent School for Intelligence. |
