June 12, 2010
Cutting the Pentagon Budget, Reframing the Pentagon’s Goals
Update 12/31/11: I’ve revised this article slightly since first published about 18 months ago.
Reason has a great article today called Cutting the Pentagon Budget, by Veronique de Rugy, senior fellow at the Mercatus Center. She calls for some sanity in the Department of Defense budget, which has grown to $708 billion for FY 2011. de Rugy raises good points about the political feasibility of cutting defense spending, and points out the well-known argument that we spend more than the rest of the universe combined on defense spending. But what’s missing from the article, and what’s typically missing from any such discussion about the defense budget, is what our defense goals ought to be.
Plain and simple, the U.S. military ought to exist to defend America. Period. To that end, I would make the following policy goals:
1. Redeploy all American troops from all foreign countries. There’s no need for American troops in Europe or Asia – WWII is over. Withdraw from the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and especially Afghanistan, now that bin Laden is dead.
2. Cut the active Army down to three divisions: the 1st Armored Division at Ft. Bliss, TX, the 10th Mountain Division in Ft. Drum, NY, and the 2nd Infantry Division at Ft. Lewis, WA, plus the necessary support units. Make the other seven divisions and support units part of the reserve.
3. Maintain a blue-water navy that can protect American sea trade and American shores. Whether that’s our current 11 carrier strike groups or fewer, I’m not sure, but my gut says it’s probably more like six or seven.
4. Maintain an air force than can establish and hold air superiority over American airspace and prevent foreign warplanes from harming Americans. Again, I’m not sure on the specifics (I was in the Army, so I know more about their capabilities/assets than the other branches) but after redeploying Air Force units from overseas, I don’t think it would be a stretch to reduce the number of planes by one-third and still have more than enough to defend American soil.
5. De-federalize the National Guard/Air Guard. Give the assets to the states and let them run it as they see fit. Smaller states, like Rhode Island or Delaware, might not see the need for much more than a couple of infantry battalions. Larger states like Texas or Montana might see the need for a larger State guard to augment federal troops, but that choice would be made at the state level.
6. Heed the words of Eisenhower’s farewell speech about the military-industrial complex, and scale back procurement of unnecessary arms. To his credit, former Defense Secretary Gates attempted to do this; unsurprisingly, Congress didn’t much cooperate.
These steps would allow us to cut defense spending roughly in half. That’s a pretty good start – and that keeps Americans just as safe as they are today.
