As bad as sequestration is now and is going to be — and that's much worse than some of you have told me you think — in the interest of truth, everyone should remember that the Chairman, before he was Chairman, before he was even Chief of Staff, Army, was railing, picking up the ADM Mullen line that deficits were the worst threat to national security and that DoD should be a part of deficit reduction. That, IMHO, undercuts his moral authority to do anything other than embrace sequestration, which is having impacts you wouldn't believe if we were allowed to discuss them with you. Folks, on a day to day basis, every day gets “suckyer” than the previous day. Sequestration is creating monumental diversions of key leader and staff attention from the real business of national defense. Most of the specifics are classified and/or “predecisional.”
Gen. Martin Dempsey: Pentagon reassessing defense strategy under sequestration
The Washington Times, Thursday, March 14, 2013
Military officials are reassessing the national defense strategy in light of spending cuts that will force the Pentagon to reduce its budget by $500 billion over the next decade, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says.
“Recognizing longer-term uncertainty, I’ve also begun to reassess what our military strategy should be, as well as institutional reforms necessary to remain an effective fighting force,” ArmyGen. Martin E. Dempsey wrote on his Facebook page.
Gen. Dempsey said he had called together senior military leaders Wednesday to discuss how best to handle the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration and other budget challenges.
A Joint Chiefs spokesman told The Washington Times the meeting marks the first time that military leaders had met specifically to discuss reassessing the strategy.
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter held a “strategic seminar” with Gen. Dempsey, the Joint Chiefs and other defense officials to discuss the budget, a Pentagon official said.
Phi Beta Iota: It is not possible to have a strategy for the Pentagon without first having a) a deep understanding of all ten high-level threats to humanity; b) a ruthless counterintelligence service that expunges all traitors and corrupt officials from the entire PPBS process; c) a grand strategy rooted in legitimacy and focused on the public interest instead of one that abandons all moral principles and served special interests; and finally, d) a whole systems true cost economics model for managing Whole of Government strategy, policy, acquisition, and operations — in other words, OMB needs to learn to MANAGE — meanwhile, DoD needs to do a zero-based joint and coalition needs review that will inevitably end up at closing all overseas bases, creating a 450-ship Navy, a long-haul Air Force, and an air-liftable Army.
See Also:
2013 Robert Steele: Reflections on Reform 2.2 Numbers for 30% DoD Cut over 2-4 Years
