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I mentioned earlier that Paul Ryan seems to think that the military operates under a kind of Stockholm syndrome. They have fallen in love with their captors in the Obama Administration and have started to happily parrot their thoughts on trims to the military budget. But they don’t really believe in any of it, according to the House Budget Committee chair.
At a forum on the federal budget Thursday hosted by National Journal, Ryan said “We don’t think the generals are giving us their true advice. We don’t think the generals believe that their budget is really the right budget. I think there’s a lot of budget smoke and mirrors in the Pentagon’s budget.”
Now, keep in mind that the Obama Administration’s “cuts” to the military budget aren’t cuts. They just slow growth over time. And the Pentagon doesn’t even contemplate the mandated trigger cuts that are coming at the end of the year, which fall in large part on the defense budget.
But Martin Dempsey, the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had to respond to this nonsense today, and he assured Ryan that, no, he’s not a hostage of the socialist Kenyan Obama Administration.
Gen. Dempsey, the military’s top officer, took sharp exception to the chairman’s comments.
“There’s a difference between having someone say they don’t believe what you said versus … calling us, collectively, liars,” Gen. Dempsey told reporters aboard a U.S. military aircraft after a four day visit to Latin America. ”My response is: I stand by my testimony. This was very much a strategy-driven process to which we mapped the budget.”
Gen. Dempsey said the budget “was a collaborative effort” among the top officers of the military branches as well as combat leaders.
The proof that the military budgeting represented a collaborative effort, of course, is that it doesn’t cut the military budget all that much.
But it’s worth re-emphasizing that Paul Ryan called the entire military brass a bunch of liars who gave false testimony to Congress. And he will not listen to their calls for even modest trims to their funding. This makes him the very serious budget hawk in Washington.
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During his tour of Latin America, General Dempsey was trying to gain support for using US “terror tactics” in the on-going War on Drugs. It’ll be interesting to see how the Latin American governments are going to react to this since several lately have been discussing more humane “tactics”.
General [Martin Dempsey]: U.S. may export terror war tactics to fight drug gangs
“Much as the U.S. argues for specialized tactics and military force to counter the drug gangs, South American nations like Colombia — a key U.S. military ally — are pushing for a less violent approach to counter the cartels that works through simple economics. Specifically, legalization would undercut the gangs’ profits tremendously, which many believe would have a pacifying effect on the supply-side marketplace, currently drenched in blood from Peru to Mexico’s northern border.
“Former presidents of Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and even one former U.S. Secretary of State all agree that America’s drug war has failed and a new strategy is needed. Their group, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, recently called for the drug war to shift its focus from enforcement and interdiction to medical treatment and harm-reduction policies.
“Even some U.S. Senators agree: a subcommittee report last June, given to Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), warned that the South American drug was has been a miserable failure, not just on the enforcement side, but on the efficiency side as well.”
LINK.
None of those say whether Ryan thinks they are lying about whether the budget is too large or too small.
Eric Holder has already exported an incredible amount of arms to the drug dealers in Mexico, against the wishes of the Mexican President. How much more terror can we give them?
The coalescence of the two “wars” (on Terrorism and on Drugs) has had an interesting impact on the production of opium in Afghanistan.
I wouldn’t have called a man a “liar” who has a fleet of unmanned, armed drones at his disposal like Gen. Dempsey does.
What a moron!!!!
There are still a few countries left that the U.S. is not militarily involved in. We should have a contest for the name of the War that will get the U.S. military in them.
Operation Mop-Up. America’s “all-of-the-above” foreign policy.
Journalists
Please discontinue the use of the verb “rap” in the sense of “giving a reprimand or rebuke”. It’s just an antediluvian term that makes your writing suddenly seem like a news report out of the late Victorian.
Plus, whenever I read of Politician A “rapping” Politician B, all that comes to mind is an image of Politician A festooned in gold chains and wildly colored athletic clothing, busting rhymes into a microphone while waving the free hand in the air rhythmically.
It’s got to stop.
Thanks in advance -
Slowing down the rate of increase is a cut, should be considered a cut, and furthermore should be considered woefully inadequate in the case of our bloated defense budget.
Next year, when our “Democratic” President proposes to work with the GOP in slowing down the rate of growth in SS & Medicare, well, that too will be a cut. Also.
So the Military should have a budget based on an analysis of need. Specifically what is needed to maintain and extend a global empire that is bleeding us dry.
The rest of the Federal budget should be based on “screw the losers”?
After the disastrous failures of the generals, it is amazing that they have any credibility on anything.
I guess it’s like the Supreme Court: you get what you get.