Top military brass slam Obama, Reid proposed budget cuts

by Jim Kouri 

 

"We are the only Army in the world, where if [a soldier] is asking for something, anything, he knows he's going to get it. And that is a level of trust we have with the soldiers of the United States Army. We just need to make sure, that whatever we do, we never take away his ability and his belief that if in combat, he asks for it, he's going to get it." -- General Peter Chiarelli- Vice Chief Of Staff, United States Army

According General Martin Dempsey, President Obama's nominee to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it would be "extraordinarily difficult and very high risk" to cut $800 billion from defense spending as is proposed by President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as part of efforts to reduce the national debt.

General Dempsey accurately points out that "national security didn't cause the debt crisis nor will it solve it." Despite this fact, Senate Democrats and the President continue to insist on cutting defense to pay for deficit reduction anywhere from $400 billion to over $800 billion.

Truth be told, because entitlement spending has tripled while defense spending declined as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), entitlement spending (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security) is now 10 percent of GDP, whereas defense spending is only 5 percent.

 

As documented in The Heritage Foundation's 2011 Budget Chart Book, even eliminating all defense spending would not solve the federal spending crisis. Since 1976, annual entitlement spending has exceeded defense spending, even with the cost of wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

While many local political leaders -- governors, mayors, county executives and their staffs -- believe it's better to reduce the bloated military budget than cutting social programs, they forget the axiom,

"We must fight them over there, so we don't have to fight them over here."

Service Chiefs Wary of Deep Cuts

This sentiment was underscored by four senior military officers at a Readiness Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday where all four leaders told the subcommittee that they are "currently unable to meet all the needs of the military's regional combatant commanders," according to the Hill. The Vice Chiefs and the Assistant Commandant all stated on the record that they could not withstand additional, significant defense cuts without fundamentally altering force structure and strategy.

They offered a chilling, but realistic view of their current readiness status and what might happen to U.S. national security strategy should cuts be enacted on this level.

United States Marine Corps, Assistant Commandant General Joseph Dunford:

"Marines and their gear at their home stations were in a 'degraded readiness state,' thanks to their decade of war, meaning they'd be late to 'respond to unexpected crises.'

"Dunford, told a House subcommittee that he had enough Marines to service the needs of CENTCOM (Central Command) but not the other commands. In other words, the Marines are stretched thin, a point that McKeon says applies to the entire military," according to Fox News.

"The Marines would face challenges in absorbing its share of a $400 billion cut. If cuts go beyond that, we would have to start making some fundamental changes in the nature of the Marine Corps,"  Dunford said.

United States Navy, Vice Chief Admiral Jonathan Greenert:

"Greenert said the Navy needs more ships to meet demands of combatant commanders worldwide."

"The stress on the force is real," Greenert said. "and it has been relentless."

United States Air Force, Vice Chief General Philip Breedlove:

"Air Force Vice Chief Gen. Phillip Breedlove said defense cuts larger than $400 billion would force a 'fundamental' change in how the service meets its part of the military's mission, and force it to reduce 'capacity,' meaning equipment."

"Some portions of the Air Force are right at the ragged edge."

United States Army, Vice Chief General Peter Chiarelli:

"The Army is also stretched too thin, Chiarelli warned, and noted that the Army still  hasn't met goals for dwell time at home for American troops.

Chiarelli, also said "Bigger reductions would require his service do a 'major reassessment' of how it carries out its missions."

According to the Vice Chiefs and the Assistant Commandant, the logical conclusion is that drastic defense cuts will require a new national security approach.

The question is – will we force our military to do more with less? The President has not made the distinction between cuts and military strategy, instead proposing defense cuts while expanding the military's mission (Libya, Japan, Haiti, fighting pirates off the coast of Africa) and expecting our troops to maintain their current duties.

If enacted, defense cuts discussed by the President and Senator Reid mean that our Armed Services will have to do a "major reassessment" of how they carry out their missions, as the Vice Chiefs and the Assistant Commandant acknowledged.The President should be frank with American people about the condition of our military and recognize the potentially disastrous consequences of his proposed cuts," said Chiarelli.

 

Jim Kouri, CPP, formerly Fifth Vice-President, is currently a Board Member of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, an editor for ConservativeBase.com, and he's a columnist for Examiner.com.  In addition, he's a blogger for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Fox News Radio affiliate KGAB (www.kgab.com). Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty. 

He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations.  He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country.   Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer and columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com.   Kouri appears regularly as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Fox News Channel, Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, etc. 

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Obama administration cancels DHS nuclear detection program

by Jim Kouri

The Obama administration canceled a $1.2 billion program to install nuclear material detectors at U.S. ports of entry, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

According to Tuesday's DHS statement to the U.S. Congress, the equipment is unreliable as far as its "technical glitches" that included false positives or false alarms.

 

Even so, the Homeland Security Department plans to give a go-ahead for implementing a small-scale version of the original plan using handheld radiation detectors.

"The idea is to detect radiation and identify the kind of material producing it," said security consultant and anti-terrorism expert Nick Gloss.

"The Homeland Security Department spent $230 million over five years to develop the equipment and I dare say they will not tell lawmakers that they have nothing to show for it," said Gloss.

Following several "Red Team" undercover operations that revealed undercover operatives were able to sneak radioactive material into the United States across both north and south borders and through other entry points, the DHS and the White House have been under pressure to correct the security vulnerabilities regarding weapons of mass destruction.

At a cost of $822,000 for each of the faulty devices, the original plan was to install them at 1,400 sites where shipped materials enter the United States.

The Homeland Security Department rushed to complete the technology using poorly designed tests that made it difficult to "draw reliable conclusions" about whether the equipment worked properly, the National Academy of Sciences reported. A more recent Government Accountability Office report said projected costs of the equipment have risen significantly.

In addition, without better performance tests, the Homeland Security Department lacks "the input it needs to determine whether ASP is ready to progress toward production and deployment," the GAO report said.

The Advanced Spectroscopic Portal program was the Obama administration's response to intelligence reports indicating that terrorists may attempt to enter the U.S. with nuclear weapons or radiological material used to create so-called dirty bombs into the United States in cargo containers. Dirty bombs are conventional explosives packaged with radiological material.

At the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, only about 2 percent of the cargo entering the United States was inspected by Customs and Border Protection. Congress set a goal in 2006 of inspecting 100 percent of the incoming cargo for nuclear material.

"The threat of a nuclear or radiological weapon being used against New York City is also among the foremost concerns of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly," said Richard Daddario, the New York City Police Department's deputy commissioner for counterterrorism.

He described the police department's Securing the Cities Program for using equipment and training personnel to respond to risks of a nuclear attack.

 

 

Jim Kouri, CPP, formerly Fifth Vice-President, is currently a Board Member of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, an editor for ConservativeBase.com, and he's a columnist for Examiner.com.  In addition, he's a blogger for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Fox News Radio affiliate KGAB (www.kgab.com). Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty. 

He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations.  He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country.   Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer and columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com.   Kouri appears regularly as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Fox News Channel, Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, etc.

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