McManus: Obama's modest proposal on defenses: Obama's modest proposal on defense

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The president's Defense Strategy Review is sure to be criticized by Republicans as cutting too deep, but the real question is whether it cuts deep enough.

As he unveiled his administration's new blueprint for U.S. defense strategy last week, President Obama sought to vaccinate himself against charges that he was gutting the nation's military.

Even after the strategy is fully implemented, he said, "the defense budget will still be larger than it was at the end of the Bush administration."

So it seemed a little odd when, an hour later, the second-ranking official in Obama's Pentagon presented what sounded like a rebuttal.

"You have, over the next four years, a reduction in total defense spending as rapid as any we experienced after Vietnam or after the Cold War," Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcmanus-defense-budget-20120108,0,6600741.column