The Next War

By JEFFERY DELVISCIO

As the new year begins, At War is taking a look at a series by our Washington correspondents dubbed “The Next War.” The articles examine the American military and the decisions confronting it in a new age of austerity, from the cuts to come, to the costs of technology and the vision of a newer, leaner fighting force.

Panetta’s Pentagon

Stephen Crowley/The New York TimesLeon E. Panetta, center, in the Rose Garden in 1995 as President Bill Clinton announced a Bosnia peace agreement. From right are Vice President Al Gore and Anthony Lake, the national security adviser.

 

The first article, by Peter Baker, follows the man who must lead the Defense Department cuts: Leon E. Panetta.

As President Obama’s C.I.A. director, Mr. Panetta oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden last spring. Now as the president’s new defense secretary, he is charged with closing the books on multiple fronts — just last week, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi was killed in Libya and the last American troops were ordered home from Iraq by the end of the year. But the biggest challenges ahead may be retrofitting the military for a new era of austerity and guarding Mr. Obama’s national security flank heading into a turbulent election year.

Mr. Baker captures Mr. Panetta as a canny navigator of Washington’s halls for more than four decades, but one with a heck of a big job ahead of him:

The careful positioning has made Mr. Panetta one subject on which Mr. Obama and many Republicans agree. “I’m a Leon Panetta fan,” said former Representative Pete Hoekstra, who is no Obama fan. “He’s fairly hawkish and aggressive on national security issues,” agreed Representative Mike Rogers, the House intelligence chairman.
Representative Peter King, the homeland security chairman, said Mr. Panetta could have served “the toughest Republican president, not just a Democratic president.”
How long that lasts, of course, remains uncertain. He is treading into dangerous territory as he searches for $450 billion in defense cuts over 10 years. If a new Congressional debt committee cannot forge a deficit-reduction agreement by Thanksgiving, Mr. Panetta faces what he calls a “doomsday mechanism” mandating an additional $500 billion in cuts.

To date, that “doomsday mechanism” has not been set off as Congress has yet to follow through with deeper budget reductions that would require it. More on that below.
Read the article »