A collection of politically progressive groups are now attempting to put pressure on the Biden Administration and Congress to use the US military’s coming withdrawal from Afghanistan as an excuse to drastically slash the defense budget.
As The Hill reports:
Forty advocacy groups from across the political spectrum are pushing lawmakers to use President Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan as an opportunity to cut the defense budget.
In a letter being sent Friday to the leaders of the defense appropriations subcommittees in the House and Senate, the organizations argue the Afghanistan withdrawal “offers an opportunity to re-examine the nation’s extremely large commitments to the Pentagon budget.”
“We are dismayed that the administration’s initial budget blueprint to Congress did not reflect a corresponding reduction in war funds, and instead included a gargantuan request of $753 billion for the Pentagon and affiliated spending,” the organizations wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Hill ahead of its release.
“We urge the congressional defense appropriations subcommittees to appropriate a lower topline than initially requested by the Biden administration to, at a minimum, reflect cost savings from withdrawing troops from Afghanistan,” they added in the letter to Reps. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) and Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) and Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.).
It seems that liberals and progressives will never waste an opportunity to weaken the US military, even if it means making America more vulnerable to its enemies.
Odd thought they would use to increase budget for endless wars right
There has never been a democrat controled whitehouse that did not cut the defense budget. Thats because they are enemies of the constition.
DOD has much to do: Replace equipment useful for fighting against lightly armed foes in Afghanistan with equipment suitable for fighting peer-equipped forces across the globe; Reconfigure, reequip and retrain units across all service branches to win against peer-level threats. None of this is cheap. There is no so-called “peace dividend”. There will be a heavy penalty paid in blood and treasury if we fail in those efforts.
The defense budget could be cut dramatically if the core meaning of that phrase; “Defense”, was applied to the mission of our armed forces. Afghanistan was not a conflict to defend America. Nor was Iraq any threat to our security and freedom. Iran definitely has little to none of a resolve to destroy America, save their resentment of our covert agencies finagling with their leadership. A goodly portion of a defense strategy should entail the avoidance of creating conflicts in that manner. Leave those people to their own devices, and keep our troops poised to defend our borders, our shores and our country. When our brave soldiers stand guard against invasions and other attacks against America, they truly demonstrate the mission of our armed forces.
Seems like the right thing to do , with all fighting going on in other parts of the world , who has time to pick on the weakend USA
There’s a thought now. Let’s cut the military budget, you know those folks who protect and serve, and look out for our national security. Instead let’s divert those funds into more wire fencing, razor wire and armed guards to surround the People’s House so that ordinary joes can be kept out of any government buildings, and so that Nancy Putz and Chuck Shroomer can be protected from those damn conservative radicals. You know, you and me.
I was among tens of thousands of USAF civilians who lost our jobs due to budget cuts, and base closures. The collapse of the Soviet Union signaled the end of a major USAF Mission objective. In fact, the USAF was developed to counter Soviet threats. We all understood why it was necessary to shutter so many depots (Like ours..) training bases and SAC facilities. The military is never an apple in the eyes of any administration until significant aggression is applied against our nation, or our troops. Like the buildup toward WWII, the process of gearing up our armed forces will take time, huge amounts of money and tons of effort until they’re ready to fight again.
Hello China! A murderous, souless CCP ferverently working twords becoming number one superpower and expand military to dominate the world, but Libs think time to weaken our military. Are they that stupid or do they want to weaken our government to bring about change to more leftist doctrines?
They’re no different than their predecessors. Did you know the U.S. was allied with the Soviets during WWII? We even sent them weapons and ‘advisors’ to train their soldiers how to use those weapons. FDR affectionately referred to Stalin, a murderous dictator, as “Uncle Joe”. At least General Patton had the good sense to steer clear of those people.