Dan Coats: “Since Navy officials were short last year of $300 million in operations funds due to increased tempo of operations, they…”

“Since Navy officials were short last year of $300 million in operations funds due to increased tempo of operations, they reduced flying hours for squadrons aboard carriers. Marines getting home from a 6-month deployment to Somalia aboard the USS Inchon were sent to Haiti 12 days after they reached home. One general reports, ``Strategic lift in this country is broken right now.'' He warns that most U.S. military capability would not begin to arrive at a regional conflict for 3 months after it began. Yet the administration pretends the charade that it has a military capability to respond to two major regional crises at nearly the same time. The Marine Corps is using 50-year-old canvas tents and wearing boots from the Korean war era. These instances are isolated, but they are not uncommon. They represent an emerging trend. The inspector general of the Marine Corps commented to me, ``At some point in the near future, the current funding strategy will ultimately undermine the corps' ability to meet war-fighting and peacetime presence requirements.'' It is the same story in every branch. Mr. President, in conclusion, the reason that we must be concerned is simple. We cannot afford as a nation to repeat the patterns of the past, a pattern of American withdrawal followed by major costly commitments. We need the ability to consistently shape our strategic future, not just to respond when it falls in disorder. And that requires both readiness and continued technological advances.”