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Lawmakers respond to new defense strategy

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill were quick to respond to the Pentagon’s unveiling of a new defense strategy shaped by a 10-year $489 billion cut to the Defense Department’s budget.

President Barack Obama joined Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and senior military and civilian leaders at the Pentagon on Thursday to introduce the strategy, which emphasizes a shift in focus from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Asia-Pacific region.

The strategy document also states that the U.S. will have to rely on a smaller military force.

The responses were somewhat predictable, based on political party affiliation, but for at least one Republican, President Obama’s new defense posture did not require outright rejection.

“The current and emerging global threats to our national security are more complex than at any time that I can recall,” said Republican Sen. John McCain, ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Therefore, I will closely, carefully and thoroughly review the defense strategy that the president announced today and examine whether it meets our national security objectives.”

His counterpart in the House, Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, did not hesitate to criticize the new strategy.

While the Pentagon press conference was still underway, McKeon tweeted, “New defense strategy is a lead from behind for a left-behind America.”

In a statement issued soon afterward, he said, “The President has packaged our retreat from the world in the guise of a new strategy to mask his divestment of our military and national defense.”

McKeon said he does not believe budget constraints should shape the country’s defense posture.

“An honest and valid strategy for national defense can’t be founded on the premise that we must do more with less, or even less with less. Rather you proceed from a clear articulation of the full scope of the threats you face and the commitments you have. You then resource a strategy required to defeat those threats decisively,” he said in a statement.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., who serves as ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, offered his full support for the president’s strategy and responded to McKeon’s critique.

“Clearly, we do not have an endless amount of resources, and that should be taken into consideration, but it should not be the driving force behind our national security strategy,” Smith said. “As demonstrated by the strategy laid out today, the administration fully understands this fact.”

While the strategy document provides overarching guidance for the Defense Department, programmatic details will not be released until the 2013 budget is introduced in February.