Bush's War Budget
EDITORIAL Bush's War Budget Im one of the hawks . . . when it comes to defense, says Senator Robert C. Byrd with a straight face. "But I'm becoming a little nervous as I hear that we're going to...
...And, thankfully, there is a president in the White House willing to lead the way...
...Again, we can't help pointing out that these shortfalls are the product of years of inadequate funding...
...All this will in turn require equipping our armed forces with far more of the precision-guided munitions, aerial drones, and other high-tech weaponry that have given the United States such a decisive, and life-saving, advantage in modern warfare—as well as the support and training that make the U.S...
...Senate majority leader and presidential candidate Thomas Daschle last week offered this bit of plain speaking: "We recognize that we're in very difficult, national crisis circumstances, and we've got to understand the budgetary implications of that situation...
...And it will require, even as we wage the present struggle, that we continue pursuing innovations in weaponry and the art of fighting modern war, so that we can be better prepared for the unknown dangers that lurk over the horizon...
...It will require increasing the number of men and women under arms...
...This is a subtle shift from the get-in and then get-out approach that seemed to be prevailing before...
...But we are confident the American people do understand...
...What will be required, therefore, is a steady, sustained increase in defense spending, this year, next year, and the year after that...
...After September 11, no one can any longer doubt that dire threats exist in the world, or deny that a strong American military is the sine qua non for meeting and defeating those threats...
...The increase, in addition to being sorely needed by our busy but depleted armed forces, speaks volumes about the president's commitment to the war on terrorism...
...The disturbing truth is that if the president decided to attack Iraq tomorrow, the U.S...
...military might not have all it needs to carry out the job in the most effective possible way...
...troops may remain there for some time, providing essential high-powered security as the difficult task of establishing and strengthening that nation's government and economy goes forward...
...Byrd nervous, we would make another point about the "budgetary implications" of the current "situation": The shortfalls and inadequacies in the defense budget, all of which President Bush is now hurriedly trying to repair, are the direct consequence of eight years of appalling neglect of our military by the Clinton administration and by the Congress...
...Joseph Lieberman and Rep...
...It's a shift that Democrats should welcome, and be willing to pay for...
...And President Bush is right to propose a defense budget that, for the first time in a decade, sets us on a path to secure that future...
...If that makes Democrats such as Sen...
...There's reason to believe that President Bush's budget proposal is partly designed to pay for Phase 2 of the war...
...Meanwhile, the rest of America's international security obligations, in Europe and Asia and the Middle East, remain intact and important...
...Victory in the larger war will require not only that the United States rid other countries of dangerous terrorists and the governments that support them, but that we also take on the difficult task of providing long-term security afterward, to allow nation-building to proceed in those countries where terrorists once found haven...
...This past week Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld indicated U.S...
...Last July, Rumsfeld's deputy Paul Wolfowitz boldly warned Congress that it was "reckless to press our luck or gamble with our children's future" by spending so little on defense...
...And here's a heads-up for Democrats and Republican budget hawks: Bush's latest proposed increase is just the beginning...
...He was right...
...We're already having to replenish materiel...
...Robert Kagan and William Kristol...
...Obviously, too, the president and his foreign policy team recognize that there's no quick and easy exit from Afghanistan...
...The new defense budget is aimed at making sure there are no such shortfalls in the future...
...There is no one-year "bump" that can repair the problems of a decade of underfunding the military...
...Maybe it's too much to expect that some leading Democrats will understand why the war on terrorism requires increases in the defense budget (prominent exceptions are Sen...
...This all means spending more on the military...
...And then there's the matter of Iraq...
...Obviously, Bush has rejected the advice of some political advisers that he turn his emphasis away from the war and back to domestic issues...
...President Bush's proposed defense increase may prove to be one of the most significant decisions of his presidency...
...Other Senate Democrats are apparently upset, too, and are expressing "heavy skepticism" about the "huge" defense increase...
...Whether they plan to mount an attack on Bush's proposal remains to be seen...
...The "budgetary implications" of the present "situation" are as follows: We are currently engaged in a wide-ranging, open-ended war to defend Western civilization from terrorist groups and nations that want to destroy our people, our cities, and our way of life with weapons of mass destruction...
...But I'm becoming a little nervous as I hear that we're going to spend more and more and more on the military...
...armed forces to fight wars both big and small in a variety of different theaters—in East Asia and Central Asia, in the Persian Gulf, in the Horn of Africa, and who knows where else— and sometimes in more than one place simultaneously...
...Norman Dicks...
...military the envy of the world...
...Maybe this will help, Senator...
...That was Byrd's reaction to the gratifying news that President Bush has decided to seek a $38 billion increase in defense spending for Fiscal Year 2003, with another $10 billion as a "war reserve...
...A little-discussed fact is that the Pentagon's stocks of precision-guided munitions, unmanned reconnaissance drones, communications gear, and other weapons and equipment essential to fighting an Afghan-style high-tech war have all been seriously depleted over the past four months...
...In the coming months and years this war will require the U.S...
Vol. 7 • February 2002 • No. 20
