The general nominated to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned Tuesday that cutting more from the defense budget would be “extraordinarily difficult” and a “very high risk” for the military.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Army chief of staff and President Obama’s nominee to serve as the nation’s chief military adviser, testified at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He said the military had difficulty identifying the $400 billion to cut from the budget under former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gate’s tenure. The Pentagon would struggle even more to match $1 trillion in cuts suggested by both Republicans and Democrats.
Even without the larger budget cuts, the military may not be as capable in the future as it is now, Gen. Dempsey warned.
“We’ll make some adaptations on how we do things, but at some point we may reach a point where we have to recommend to the president that we have to adapt or revise our strategy,” he said.
The general pointed to personnel costs as one of the large pressures on the budget.
“Our manpower costs consume approximately 42 percent of our budget,” he said. “Left unaddressed, that will rise to 48 percent by 2017. That is not sustainable.”
Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, said the committee needed to make budget cuts based on military needs, not on budgetary constraints.
“The defense cuts currently proposed reflect minimal, if any, understanding of how they will be applied or what impacts they will have on our defense capabilities or our national security,” Mr. McCain said.
The general agreed, saying, “We should avoid simply making formulaic, across-the-board cuts.”
Gen. Dempsey said that sacrifices would have to be made in every sector of the military, from personnel to equipment orders.
“If we tried to artificially preserve manpower, we will suffer the consequences in modernization and in operations,” he said.
The general said that service benefits, such as retirement funds and health care, would have to be evaluated to look for potential savings.
“It’s important that we place everything on the table, so that we can maintain balance at whatever level [of cuts] we end up at,” he said.
Gen. Dempsey said he expected that the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, which covers the cost of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, would be used to pay for those costs.
“I will continue to prioritize funding to support our troops fighting in our conflicts abroad while helping to assure we are conducting operations in a fiscally responsible manner,” he said.
In a debt-ceiling bill proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, the fund would be drained to gain $1 trillion in savings within the next 10 years.
Despite the decreasing role of the United States in both Iraq and Afghanistan, both countries face external threats, he said.
In Iraq, he said that he, along with many Iraqi generals, believe that Iran is planning to exploit a possible power vacuum during the U.S. troop withdrawal.
“Iran’s activities in southern Iraq are intended to produce some kind of Beirut-like moment … and then, in so doing, to send a message that they have expelled us from Iraq,” Gen. Dempsey said, referring to Hezbollah’s 1982 bombing of a Marine barracks in Lebanon.
In Afghanistan, the general said that he would encourage Pakistani forces to attack the Haqqani terrorist network, tied to attacks against U.S. forces from bases near the Afghani border.
Despite these concerns, Gen. Dempsey supports President Obama’s decision to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan before the end of the fighting season in 2012, which Mr. McCain described as an “unnecessary risk.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.