On the recordJuly 19, 2012
I submit for the Record a June 28 article from The Hill: But U.S. dominance in every dimension of military power is clear. In recent years we have been building ``strategic depth'' into this dominance without regard to its costs--to our Treasury and to our other priorities. A responsible rollback of our military budget is achievable with no sacrifice to our security. The author is Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Colin Powell when he was Secretary of State, and he was special assistant to Colin Powell when General Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. So, yes, there were times when I think: let's take some advice from some military experts. [From The Hill, June 28, 2012] The Executive Viewpoint--Time To Bite the Bullet (By Lawrence Wilkerson) Though the U.S. budget process has been going through the motions in 2012, the real action will take place at the end of the year, when several budget overhaul strategies will converge. Around town, the train wreck metaphor is getting the most use to describe what will happen. But whatever does happen, it is certain that large cuts are coming. Those cuts come as three wars--Afghanistan, Iraq and the global war on terror--are driving national security spending to levels not seen since World War II. Since these wars have been paid for by borrowing, they have contributed mightily to our budget deficit and diverted resources from other investments in our domestic strength.…
