Posted on 01/06/2012 7:34:19 PM PST by Olog-hai
WASHINGTON (AP) Looking beyond the wars he inherited, President Barack Obama on Thursday launched a reshaping and shrinking of the military. He vowed to preserve U.S. pre-eminence even as the Army and Marine Corps shed troops and the administration considers reducing its arsenal of nuclear weapons.
In a presentation at the Pentagon, Obama said the U.S. is "turning a page" after having killed Osama bin Laden, withdrawn troops from Iraq and begun to wind down the war in Afghanistan. He outlined a vision for the future that some Republican lawmakers quickly dubbed wrong-headed.
"Our military will be leaner, but the world must know the United States is going to maintain our military superiority," Obama said with Panetta and the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey, at his side.
The economy is more likely to determine Obama's re-election fate than national security. To keep his promises to shrink the deficit and to prove he is serious about fiscal management to voters wary of enormous government spending, Obama must show the oft-protected Pentagon is not exempt.
The political danger, though, is that his opponents will use any slashing of spending to paint the president as weak on security.
Both Panetta and Dempsey said they anticipate heavy criticism of their new strategy, which was begun last spring by then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates after Obama called for defense spending cuts. The Pentagon now faces at least $487 billion in cuts in planned defense spending over 10 years.
The criticism from Republicans came quickly.
Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, issued a statement saying, "This is a lead-from-behind strategy for a left-behind America." He called it a "retreat from the world in the guise of a new strategy."
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted2.ap.org ...
Libya and Africa were inherited?
I’m still wondering what happened to the “War of Necessity”, both in terms of rhetoric and action.
China does not exist. Russia does not exist. Radical Islam does not exist.
It’s been the goal of the left all along; destroy the military and take the money saved and dump it into social programs.
Barry needs the money to build his promised civilian attack force (Gestapo) that he wants to be as strong and powerful as the military. Keep your powder dry.
May god have no mercy!
He’s trying to wreck house for the next guy because he knows he’s toast ...
Opps God!
Getting ready for the next Pearl Harbor.
Will the thousands of released soldiers be added or subtracted from the number of “jobs created” by the POSOTUS?
Zero is pandering to the Paultards.
The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012
As I recall the author (a military officer) predicted a war with Iran in 2012 -- written in 1992 when 1960s Marxist-Alinsky spoiled brats prepared to take over the government with plans to dismantle the military into global-meals-on-wheels service and a "social experiment" lab.
The author described government that became so corrupt and incompetent that for years the military had to do much of the civilian tasks to cover for the nitwits. This left the military so weakened that when it was sent into combat in 2012 it failed.
The military saw no alternative I suppose. I believe at that point they moved to make things right again.
Obamass is now implementing that 1960s Marxist-Alinsky spoiled brats "Bring it all down, man" dream "America." He is an ideological and biological issue of those cretins -- though the teleprompter is now his mentor.
Keep safe my FRiend.
North Korea does not exist. Syria does not exist. Iran does not exist.
Countless Americans are pissed off as it is because of the destroyed economy, and the specter of a bunch of damn Stalinists invading their neighborhoods might just push them too far.
No, Obozo, our military will not be “leaner” but rather will be starved into ineffectiveness and America will be much more defenseless. Bill Ayres and Bernardine Dohrn may be pleased as punch but pro-American voters won’t be. Treasonous bastard! When Americans return to control of the White House and both houses of Congress, they will have to rebuild the military.
I can still the syphilis faced White punks on television on election night yelling, "Yes we can, yes we did, obama".
That is what the bastards that voted for him voted for, so, other than not liking it, there is not a lot I can do about it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.