The Obama administration’s strategy to reshape the post-war military is less than a month old, and already it is under fire from Washington insiders.
The new military playbook, "Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense," is disconnected from reality and was built on hopeful and unproven assumptions, a panel of experts from Washington think tanks said last week/.../
The Pentagon’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal, some details of which were presented last week, also has come under fire for making improbable assumptions. The plan, which cuts $259 billion in spending over the next five years, dodges the politically sensitive topic of rising personnel costs.
Compensation and benefits make up one third of the Pentagon’s budget, but account for just one-ninth of the proposed reductions, said Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. It is unrealistic to not expect that personnel costs — which have been on a steady climb for more than a decade —will put pressure on other areas of the budget.
Panetta has recommended that the Defense Department create a special commission to deal with retirement benefit reforms, but no comparable debate has been initiated regarding pay and benefits for active-duty forces.
Harrison also questioned Panetta’s assertion that $60 billion of the $259 billion in savings will come from “efficiencies.”
“That’s very optimistic,” Harrison said. ”It’s incredibly risky to be banking on those savings before they’ve been achieved.”