Obama’s Shrinking Navy


President Obama declared earlier this month that national-security strategy should drive the defense budget and not vice versa. Talk is cheap. An emerging debate over the Navy’s future reveals the price America will pay for slashing defense.

The Washington Times reported Monday that the Defense Department is considering cutting the aircraft-carrier fleet to as few as nine vessels. That would be down from the congressionally mandated force of 11 ships. Diminishing sea power runs counter to Mr. Obama’s stated strategic priorities. The defense strategic guidance issued Jan. 5, which Mr. Obama claimed reflected his personal vision, noted that “U.S. economic and security interests are inextricably linked to developments in the arc extending from the Western Pacific and East Asia into the Indian Ocean region and South Asia, creating a mix of evolving challenges and opportunities.” The document announced a strategic pivot in which U.S. forces “will of necessity rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region.” In case the administration was unaware, that part of the world is mostly ocean.

Defense strategy should be internally consistent even in a time of austerity. Announcing that the United States is making a strategic shift to the Pacific and then cutting the blue-water fleet makes about as much sense as setting a hard deadline for withdrawing from Afghanistan and then rushing to pull out whether the mission has been completed or not. At best, the twisted actions demonstrate a lack of clarity in connecting means and ends. At worst, this communicates a troubling level of disorganization and insufficient focus.

Carriers have often been declared obsolete. In 1942, two months after the classic carrier engagement at Midway, air-power advocate Alexander P. de Seversky said….

Read more from The Washington Times.


No related posts.

Comments

  1. nutz2u2 says:

    Why wouldn't Obama want the Navy shrunk in size? That would make us far more vulnerable to predator nations he likes in muslim-country (mainly Iran), and in the Far East (China and North Korea) .

  2. Joanneo says:

    And now the Russians. They are set to invade our country when he declares martial law, and that could be any day now. Our Washington politicians have waited to long to lower the ax on him. We Americans have been begging them to impeach, but no action, and no comment. The only bright spot when he becomes our ruler will be they will all be without jobs. HE will have no use for them. With the 20,000 Chinese troops and the Russians(no count there) untold number of UN combat vehicles parked on air strip ..all in Florida. Another army ready in Texas, he is well prepared for what he knows the Americans will do when their freedom is taken away.We, on the other hand, do not even have our armies here to help us. They are off fighting and dieing for another countrys freedom. When this is all said and done, it will be time to remove most of the power from D.C. New laws need to be put into place to see that this does not ever ever happen again. All states need to pass laws to govern their own people, that is their right with proper input from constituents. The list is endless, but enough for now.

  3. Richard says:

    I have been telling everyone I know about what Obama is doing and they don't belive me that he is going to do any thing to our country. I have even sent e-mails to my Senators and my congressman and they will not even answer me . I have been asking them to Impeach Obama but no one will. When he declares Martial Law we 'll all be in a world of sh** . I just hope that all of America will open there eyes and save this great country of ours before the Muslims try and take over our country.

  4. Richard says:

    Do you know were the airports are at in Florida were they have the UN vehicles ??
    Do you have any pic of them that you can post ??

  5. gntrker says:

    This obama will render us helpless from all sides,leading to our demise.

  6. Seeks_the_truth says:

    Iran threatens US Navy; Obama shrinks Navy. Anyone else see a correlation here?

Trackbacks

  1. [...] Obama’s Shrinking Navy President Obama declared earlier this month that national-security strategy should… [...]

  2. [...] Obama’s Shrinking Navy President Obama declared earlier this month that national-security strategy should… [...]

Speak Your Mind

*