Top officer says military should wean itself off supplementals
Defense should identify long-term needs that have been included in emergency spending bills and move them to the regular budget, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman says.
The nation's top military officer on Thursday acknowledged the deepening economic crisis will put great pressure on future defense budgets. And he said the Pentagon leadership understands the emergency supplemental spending bills that pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and support the growth of the Army and Marine Corps could come to an end.
"By and large, we need to get off the supplementals," said Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "My strategic approach is to start to implant things that are in the supplementals, that we think we have to have in the long term, into the mainline budget. We need to start doing that."
Mullen also said the trends in Afghanistan "are not going in the right direction," with violence increasing for three years. He predicted the fighting there "will be tougher next year." The growing problems in Afghanistan, particularly the ability of insurgents to cross the border from Pakistan's largely ungoverned tribal areas, "raise my level of concern," Mullen said.
Asked about the possible impact of the $700 billion bailout to address the credit crisis, Mullen said he was concerned but believed the nation needed to have a discussion on how it will pay for what is required for national security. "The nation has some very significant fiscal challenges, outside of national security," he said.
Still, the nation needs to continue growing the force to lessen the strain on the Army and Marine Corps from the continuing deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. While continuing to improve its irregular warfighting capabilities for the current conflicts, Mullen said, the future military "has to be a balanced force" that includes a significant conventional capability. "We are now purchasing the military for 2015 to 2025," he said.
Mullen said military leaders all recognize that the defense budget goes through cycles and has been going up significantly over the last seven years. They are considering what will happen "if the budget does tip over," he said. "We have a tendency to focus on the big ticket items, such as ships and aircraft," he said. But "the most expensive part of our force is our people," with up to 70 percent of the budget going to military personnel and direct-support contractors, he said. He said officials have to get control of that.
"Congress has been terrific over the last decade or so about increasing the benefits for our people," Mullen said, but added that the military -- and the nation -- must do something to stop spiraling healthcare costs. The military must also control the soaring cost of major procurement programs, he said.
Mullen noted the increased focus on Afghanistan in recent months, as conditions improve in Iraq. With attacks from Taliban and al-Qaida forces increasing, "unless we take some significant steps '09 will continue in that direction." He said the Pentagon would work to answer Army Gen. David McKiernan's call for more troops as quickly as possible.
But Mullen restated his belief that military force was not the only answer. Instead, the United States and its allies must continue to push economic development and better performance by the government to end corruption, particularly in the security forces. And they need to correct "what I consider an inadequate strategy to eliminate the poppy problems," he said, referring to the growing heroin trade that he said was financing the insurgency.