US to cut army numbers, shift focus to Asia
Pentagon critics say new strategy is driven by the need to reduce costs
PRESIDENT Barack Obama has unveiled a defence strategy that would expand the US military presence in Asia but shrink the overall size of the force as the Pentagon seeks to slash spending by nearly $500 billion (R4 trillion) after a decade of war.
The strategy, if carried out, would significantly reshape the world’s most powerful military after the build-up that was a key part of former president George W Bush’s “war on terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Cyberwarfare and drones would continue to grow in priority, as would countering attempts by China and Iran to block US power projection capabilities in areas such as the South China Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.
But the size of the US army and marine corps would shrink. So, too, might the US nuclear arsenal and the US military footprint in Europe.
Troop- and time-intensive counter-insurgency operations, a staple of US military strategy since the 2007 “surge” of extra troops to Iraq, would be far more limited.
“The tide of war is receding, but the question that this strategy answers is what kind of military will we need long after the wars of the last decade are over,” Obama told a Pentagon news conference alongside Defence Secretary Leon Panetta yesterday.
The strategy drew varied reactions, with Republican Senator John Mccain saying the US could not afford a “budget-driven defence” and independent Senator Joe Lieberman warning that it would “greatly increase the SYDNEY: Beijing should not fear a new US defence policy, seen as an “evolutionary” Asian security strategy to counterbalance China’s growing might, which will lead to a network of new military partnerships across Asia, officials and analysts said today.
The new defence strategy, which will expand the US military presence in Asia but shrink the overall size of the risk” that a US adversary would underestimate the US resolve to fight.
“This is a lead-from-behind strategy for a left-behind America,” said Representative Buck Mckeon, Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
“The president has packaged our retreat from the world in the guise of a new strategy to mask his divestment of our military and national defence.”
Panetta said the new strategy would mean that the Pentagon would field a “smaller and leaner” military force, but added that the exact number of personnel would not be determined until the Defence Department finishes its proposed 2013 budget in the coming weeks.
Administration officials have said they expect army and marine corps personnel levels to be reduced by 10 percent to 15 percent over the next decade.
The army’s current strength is about 565 000 soldiers and there are 201 000 marines.
Panetta acknowledged the Pentagon’s financial constraints would mean difficult choices and trade-offs that would require the US to take on “some level of additional but acceptable risk in the budget plan we release next month”.
Critics charged that the cuts were driven by budget woes rather than US defence needs.
“The Pentagon is trying to put on a brave face that this is a pure strategy that has informed the 2013 defence budget,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, a national security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank.
“Everyone knows that the cart was before the horse on this and that Congress and the president picked a budget and this is a strategy to chase down those numbers,” she said.
“This is a classic resourcedriven strategy document,” said Gordon Adams, an American University professor who worked on defence budgets in the Clinton administration.
“That’s not a criticism, that’s just a reality. It’s inevitable. Strategy always wears a dollar sign,” he said.
Obama and Panetta insisted that the reverse was true and that strategy would inform the spending decisions.
But they did not divulge details of spending and cuts, which will be released as part of Obama’s upcoming federal budget for the 2013 financial year.
The president
emphasised that even after enactment of the $487bn in reductions over 10 years that was agreed with Congress in August, the defence budget would still be larger than it was towards the end of Bush’s administration.
“Over the past 10 years, since 9/11, our defence budget grew at an extraordinary pace,” Obama said.
“Over the next 10 years, the growth in the defence budget will slow, but the fact of the matter is this: it will still grow because we have global responsibilities that demand our leadership.”
The shift in focus to Asia comes amid increasing concern at the Pentagon over China’s strategic goals as it begins to field a new generation of weapons that American officials fear are designed to prevent US naval and air forces from projecting power into the Far East.
The strategy says the US should maintain a force that can win one major war while still being able to deter an aggressor in a second conflict.
The strategy also highlights the US interest in maintaining stability in the Middle East while responding to the aspirations of the people as expressed in the “Arab spring” last year.
It also says the US will continue working to halt nuclear programmes in Iran and North Korea. – Reuters