Washington is acting childish as of late, and so it was pleasant to see Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel step up to the plate and make an adult decision — and a positive one at that. He is restructuring the military — something long overdue and couldn’t be more timely.
Hagel will be implementing a new all-around military strategy, or as he called it in his first major speech: a “fundamental change.” As Wired magazine put it, Hagel plans to be “more Gates and less Panetta” in cutting our severely bloated military budget. That is a good start, and would be better if he cut even more than Gates would.
Our money-grubbing Congress has appropriated reckless defense spending during the past 12 years. It has landed global anger at our doorstep and accrued damage to our national debt.
Between the unnecessary and devastating Iraq occupation and the Afghanistan War debacle, the United States lost an upward of $6 trillion, according to the Costs of War Project by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. So more than one-third of the $16 trillion we owe was wasted on unjust wars and came with the price of unprecedented death, bloodshed, pain and suffering for Americans, Iraqis and Afghanis alike.
It was not defense spending, but rather war profiteering. It was to bolster special interests that contribute nothing to our country or our people. In fact, the ruthless military occupations have caused civil strife, mayhem and human rights abuses.
Iraq is in a state of sectarian war never seen under Saddam Hussein. Baghdad University used to host more female scholars than male before the United States takeover. Now the women are being forced to marry before completing their education. Iraqis are seeing the highest rate of oppression since King Faisal’s despotic reign over Iraq in 1930.
Our offensive in Afghanistan generated the power platform the Taliban now enjoys. Not only that, but the vicious opium trade is prospering more than ever. Russian drug control chief Viktor Ivanov reported that in 2001 less than 10,000 hectors of land had been seized for opium production. Now there are more than 150,000 hectors.
If there is anything decisive to come out of the Wall Street massacre of the U.S. economy, it is the restraint forced on the military budget. As Gordon Adams of Foreign Policy Magazine wants to suggest, Hagel mirrors the warning given to us by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in January 1961 that a total restructuring is the only way to pull us back from some level of demise the military complex brings about.
In March, Hagel ordered a Strategic Choices and Management Review so he could be better informed when making major defense decisions. He wants to preserve old traditions that proved successful, reliable and relatively inexpensive. Waste must be eliminated from all armed forces and military institutions. War budgets will not increase anytime soon.
“This effort will, by necessity, consider big choices that could lead to fundamental change and a further prioritization of the use of our resources,” Hagel said.
He said such changes are expected to involve “not just tweaking or chipping away at existing structures and practices, but where necessary fashioning entirely new ones that are better suited to 21st century realities and challenges.”
Right away, Hagel scrapped the defense missile shield set for Eastern Europe and ordered missile interceptors in Alaska — a commendable move. Our defense institutions are to defend our country, not to antagonize and offend others.
Hagel is on the right path and hopefully he will keep re-framing a safer and more respectable military budget for America.