Obama Defense Cuts = Strong Medicine for Unhealthy Pentagon

"President Barack Obama will unveil his 2010 budget on Thursday, and the military expects big cuts to their spending plans. How big? The Navy was hoping for as much as $26 billion a year to build ships, and will probably get only $14 billion. The Air Force is desperate for 60 more F-22 fighters at a cost of nearly $10 billion, and the only way they’ll get them is with commiserate commensurate cuts to other programs. The Army is bracing itself for a major slash to its pet project, the $160-billion Future Combat Systems family of technologies.

“A reduction in defense spending this year would unnerve American allies,” pundit Robert Kagan warned. “What worries allies cheers and emboldens potential adversaries.”

But huge increases in military spending under George W. Bush didn’t improve our defenses, analyst Winslow Wheeler reminds us:"
War is Boring