CSBA in the News

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 Defense Department has unveiled detailsof a 10-year strategy for defense cuts — including reductions in military pay and benefits.

Troops get paid in lots of different ways. There’s basic pay, allowances, bonuses, incentives and assorted housing, health and retirement bennies. Is this the best way to compensate U.S. military personnel? In other words, are we getting the biggest bang for the taxpayer’s buck with this rucksack of options?

The deep change which the new budget rather vaguely discloses is the shift from a military doctrine focused on land wars to one much more oriented towards naval and air conflict. First, as the “Strategic Guidance” which the Pentagon issued earlier this month states, “U.S. forces will no longer be sized to conduct large-scale, prolonged stability operations” — i.e., no more wars of occupation like Iraq or Afghanistan/…/

The Pentagon must continue to tweak its weapons mix if it wants to meet the military challenges of this century, a member of an influential think tank told an audience of field grade (and at least one general) Air Force officers today.

[A] new report suggests that the Iranian threat could become more real in a decade or two. The U.S. has historically relied upon its allies in the Persian Gulf region to provide bases from which it can deploy troops and get supplies. Iran is now building weapon systems that could to stop that, possibly by threatening governments that offer bases to the U.S. military.