U.S. military leaders say they have begun preparations for a new, leaner
military as Washington prepares to make cuts in the defense budget.
Washington wants to reassure its allies, though, that it will remain
engaged with them.
The branch of the military to be hardest hit is the U.S. Army, which
will see the reduction of more than 70,000 ground troops and the removal
of two brigades from longtime bases in Europe.
The head of the army, General Ray Odierno, spoke to reporters Friday, a
day after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the cuts.
“We grew the army in order to meet our commitments in Iraq and
Afghanistan. I’m comfortable now that in fact we’re done with Iraq. Our
commitments are coming down in Afghanistan that we can now do this,"
said Odierno. "I don’t see this as we’re bearing the burden of it. I’m
saying we’re making a correction based on what we see out there as a
potential threat.”
Commitment continues
Odierno says the U.S. Army remains committed to its partners around the
world, including those in Europe where the United States expects to
accelerate what has been a gradual reduction of forces in Germany and
elsewhere since the end of the Cold War.
Under a NATO agreement, the United States is obliged to help defend the
nations of Europe in the event of attack. Michael O’Hanlon, a security
analyst with the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the new U.S.
strategy does not appear to counter that agreement.
“Europe is not under threat for the most part. We’ve already scaled back
a lot in Europe. Europe is not going to be threatened by anybody and
they have a lot of good armies themselves,” said O’Hanlon.
The U.S. defense secretary is expected to reaffirm the U.S. commitment
to NATO in the coming days when he visits its headquarters for a meeting
of defense ministers. In October, Panetta called for NATO countries to
carry more of the alliance’s defense burden.
The U.S. says its military will remain committed to its partners in the
world, but those commitments will be different from a time when it
maintained large bases to guard Western Europe from the Soviet threat.
Focus on Pacific
The U.S. military’s attention now turns to the Pacific in the face of
China’s growth, while keeping forces ready to deal with threats in the
Middle East.
Officials
say the reduction in ground forces is in line with a new strategy of no
longer engaging in long-term stability projects. Odierno says the
re-sized army will engage in short-term stability projects and will
invest in special operations forces that can accomplish missions quickly
and surgically, like the one that captured and killed Osama bin Laden.
At Thursday’s briefing, Odierno said the army also will invest in small,
low-cost operations in Africa and Latin America.
“It’s about continuing to stay engaged and continuing to build partner
capacity and build relationships with the leaderships within all of
these nations. We can do that across several ways. We can do it first
with special operations forces. We can do it with unique forces such as
engineers, medical. We can do it with aviation. They will be niche
forces which would help them to build capacity that they don’t have,”
said O’Hanlon.
In the Pacific, the Pentagon plans to increase cooperation with partners
such as the Philippines. U.S. and Philippine military officials met
recently to discuss expanding exercises and exchanges, and increasing
the number of visits by U.S. Navy vessels. The two are not discussing
any return of U.S. forces to bases on the islands.
The United States withdrew from long-held bases in the Philippines two
decades ago.
