Page 14 - Force Structure News Today

>> well, our new role would be confined to behind the scenes capabilities, which sf code word for intelligence and systems integration. november country is better than putting a lot of different stuff together and weaving together a force structure from component pieces. i think youll see the united states play the role of a kind of wizard of oz behind the curtain, if you will, without a lot of public exposure, but playing a vital systems teation le. help av in a coordinate and also were a key p...

As a first step last year we began reforming the departments approach to military acquisit n acquisition, curtailing or canceling about 20 troubled or excess program, programs that have pursued to completion would cost more than $300 billion. additional program savings have been recommended in the budget we submitted this year. however, it is clear to me that additional major changes are needed, consistent with the reform agenda laid out by the president. i believe that sustaining the current fo...

Programs that are no longer needed. all of this spending is approved by congress. the political will to cut it, to challenge the lobbyists is very tough. every secretary in the last 50 years has talked about this. none of them have made it happen. >> secretary gates says these savings are needed to prevent an erosion of u.s. combat power. what does he mean about that? >> to maintain the current force structure, the number of troops and the type of equipment they have, it constantly requires incr...

Officials explain what they are trying to do, explain how dramatically taking our force structure as you mentioned down to pre-world war ii levels in a threat environment that henry kissinger testified in front much armed services committee saying its the most complex threat environment since the end of world war ii. and were now at pre-world war ii army levels. were going to have obama administration officials come and try to explain hey this is why were cutting the dod budget dramatically even...

Tools in order to safeguard security interests. decreasing a defense budget right now is not the way to be doing it. we dont even have a natural security or military strategy that has been done in the last three to four years. therefore, we dont have a baseline by which we can even determine what our true force structure should be and how we should be exercising it. >> i think most of us would look at the overall picture of the defense budget and say theres got to be waste, fraud, duplication. w...

Tools in order to safeguard security interests. decreasing a defense budget right now is not the way to be doing it. we dont even have a natural security or military strategy that has been done in the last three to four years. therefore, we dont have a baseline by which we can even determine what our true force structure should be and how we should be exercising it. >> i think most of us would look at the overall picture of the defense budget and say theres got to be waste, fraud, duplication. w...

Wanted 20,000 and couldnt negotiate that with the government in iraq. what is your take on this? >> i think vice president bidens quote made it clear that the administration was not interested in having 10, 20,000 troops there. thats a decision they made. others included myself would have made a different decision. but we have to look going forward. i think it is good they are focusing on the strategic framework agreement for an ongoing relationship between iraq and the united states with politi...