The right ways to cut defense spending

• Pat Buchanan looks at the budget realities that are moving the government towards cutting defense spending and urges both Congress & the current administration to look at cutting those aspects of our military budget that are unnecessary in a post-Cold War world: Cut Commitments, Not Muscle. The United States should remain the world's preeminent military power, both for our own immediate defense and the defense of our interests across the world, interests we have as a global trade partner and commercial republic. But cuts are coming, and as Buchanan notes it is best that those cuts are undertaken to increase our flexibility in a changing world, not tie us down to entangling alliances that place American forces in unnecessary jeopardy. Why do we have troops stationed in Germany today? In Italy? In South Korea? Why do we have bases throughout the world, each one a tripwire that could draw us into conflicts beyond our true interests? 

• Well, what kind of cuts could start to be made in the defense budget that could move our country towards a leaner, more effective and less bloated military? Over at The American Conservative Jon Basil Utley has a substantial list of areas that could be cut, reducing spending while maintaining the core function of the military:  16 Ways to Cut Defense. (Hat tip to A Conservative Blog for Peace.) There is plenty of bloat and corruption that can be ferreted out of the defense budget, and Utley's suggestions are good places to start.  

• We also need to embrace the wisdom of the past to understand why excessive military spending is a problem. It isn't just a question of wasting money, which is reason enough. It also raises questions about the priorities of the nation and our basic approach to foreign affairs. President George Washington spoke to the latter concern in his Farewell Address of 1796, and President Eisenhower spoke to the former concern in his Farewell Address of 1961.  Here's video of Eisenhower's warning to the nation about the then-rising "military-industrial complex":