James Stavridis, a retired U.S. admiral and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, slammed the Obama administration Sunday for repeated military cuts despite the fact that the country remains engaged in "real combat operations."
"We have already cut defense … about 30 percent over the last 10 years, and we’re still at war," Stavridis explained during remarks on a New York radio show Sunday, according to the Hill. "We’re actively involved on multiple continents in real combat operations. We should not be drastically reducing our troop levels."
Last month, the Army announced plans to cut 40,000 troops and lay off 17,000 civilian employees over the next two years, losses that could become even more dramatic if sequestration begins in October.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno expressed worry over the Army cuts during an interview with Fox News late last month, stressing that the reduction since 2010 has rendered the United States unable to "deter conflict and prevent wars."
Stavridis on Sunday also expressed disbelief at Obama’s decision to remove the last remaining aircraft carrier patrolling the Middle East from the Arabian Gulf.
"We have 11 active nuclear aircraft carriers today in the United States Navy," Stavridis explained. "It is hard for me to understand why we cannot manage a fleet of that size to maintain an aircraft carrier at all times in regions as dangerous as the Arabian Gulf."
Stavridis, who currently serves as the dean of Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, went on to emphasize the need for NATO to become further involved in the conflict in Crimea spurred by Russia.
"We need to push back against that kind of Russian advancement, that Russian aggression, to show them that that’s simply not appropriate behavior in the 21st century," Stavridis explained. "They’re not as capable [as NATO forces], but within small, tactical spaces, they can still be extremely disruptive. We have to stand firmly against them to deter them."
Largely because of the country’s actions in Ukraine, two top Pentagon officials recently deemed Vladimir Putin’s Russia the largest "existential threat" to the United States.
In fact, just last week defense officials revealed that Russia was behind a "sophisticated cyber attack" carried out at the end of July on the Pentagon’s unclassified email system used by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The breach affected approximately 4,000 military and civilian employees.
Stavridis, who led the NATO Alliance in global operations from 2009 to 2013, has also been vocal in his criticism of the president’s championed Iran nuclear arms agreement, insisting during a television appearance in late July that "you can drive a truck through" the holes in the deal.