June 9,2008:
U.S. military planners are working
on how to deal with another round of major cutbacks, in terms of budgets and
manpower. This is because one of the major candidates for Commander-in-Chief
(president of the United States), Barak Obama, has a video in circulation, of a
short speech he gave earlier this year, about how he planned on handling the
Department of Defense. His major points were;
"I'm
the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning; and as
president, I will end it.
"Second,
I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending. I will cut
investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I
will slow our development of future combat systems.
"I
will institute an independent defense priorities board to ensure that the
Quadrennial Review is not used to justify unnecessary defense spending.
"Third,
I will set a goal for a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I
will not develop nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of
fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off
hair-trigger alert, and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenal."
There were
major cuts when the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, and when Bill Clinton
won the presidency. The same drill is expected if Obama wins, and military
planners are studying ways they better cope with a new round of cuts.
Obama's
speech can be found on YouTube. One version is at
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kRGru2CPC4E