I don't know the details. But I respect the source. According to a dispatch by Bryan Bender in Monday's Boston Globe, a senior group of advisors to the Pentagon has approved recommendations by the Defense Business Board that will make essential cuts to the military budget administration policy. The armed forces establishment does not usually suggest broad cuts in spending on weapons and pivotal strategic programs. That is usually done by the arms control nudniks who never met an arms expenditure of which they approved.
What the principals agree on is "rebuilding ground forces battered by multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan and expanding the ranks to wage the war on terrorism."
But, according to one of the pivotal memos, "Business as usual is no longer an option...The current and future fiscal environments facing the department demand bold action." This means budget cuts. Of course, this will affect airplane and other arms manufacturers. Still, the fact that the advice comes from inside the defense policy elites assures that it is not frivolous.
Frankly, I am a strategic expenditure hawk. Yet the fact that it is a Pentagon board that is giving this advice, instead of the anti-weaponry hysterics, calms me as it should calm others who are not deluded that most military spending is superfluous.
This will also ease Barack Obama's own budget calvary which men and women on both sides of the aisle will assure it truly is.