Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work on Tuesday defended the Pentagon’s decision to ask Congress for a 2016 budget that far exceeds federal spending caps, saying several years of cuts have hurt the military’s ability to modernize to meet future threats.
“The stark reality is that the military modernization programs of our potential competitors are in hyper-drive,” Work told a Navy convention. “We see nations, as well as non-state actors, developing capabilities that threaten the technological overmatch we rely on … as we fight our nation’s wars.”
Work, the Pentagon’s chief operating officer, said heavy use of U.S. forces overseas even as the department was being forced to cut spending in recent years had eroded the military’s current readiness and limited its ability to invest in new technologies.
This is a direct result of Team Lightbringer not really paying attention to the real world. After they convinced themselves that the ill-advised withdrawal from Iraq meant all was right with the world, they decided that they could slash the defense budget to free up money for more important things, like “free” health care websites and Big Green subsidies. Now as the ISIS threat continues to grow, rename itself and show up seemingly anywhere, it turns out we may need more weapons than electric cars for this fight.
True, the Pentagon can quite often be just another wasteful cog in the bureaucratic machine but its mission can’t be viewed as co-equal with other budgetary concerns. The technological capabilities of the U.S forces are what keep us a step or two ahead of an enemy with an almost endless supply of bodies willing to be sacrificed and this is not the time to fall behind in that area.
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