Pentagon: Budget Cuts Would Make Wars Even Longer

Still Seeking Money for Wars in 2015

Even though the actual, real budgets the Pentagon receives have essentially ignored sequestration-mandated cuts entirely, the Pentagon continues to rail about the idea, insisting that the cuts would “hollow” the military and make wars last longer.

The claim is an incredible one, in that the Pentagon’s really big pre-sequestration wars in Iraq and Afghanistan weren’t won in a timely fashion, or indeed at all. The Afghan War is now 12 and a half years old, and President Obama’s troop deal would keep troops there “through 2024 and beyond.”

The Pentagon’s budget requests continue to ignore sequestration as well, using requests for special wartime funding as a way around cuts. Despite talking up the Afghan War winding down (more or less) in 2015, the 2015 budget is still seeking $79.4 billion in wartime funds, similar to the amount approved in 2014.

Even if the sequestration cuts ever did happen, the US military would be spending nearly a factor of ten more than any other nation on the planet. Despite this, the Pentagon sees runaway military spending as woefully insufficient for the ambitious new wars they figures are coming in the next few years.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.