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Military Opposes Obama Defense Cuts

October 16, 2012

President Barack Obama on Tuesday once again claimed that military leaders were not requesting additional funds for the defense budget.

Many military and congressional leaders, however, have expressed significant opposition to Obama’s proposed military cuts, warning of their potentially disastrous impact.

The Foreign Policy Initiative compiled a list of legislative, executive, and military leaders, who have opposed the sequestration cuts.

Here are three highlights from military leaders:

Gen. Raymond Odierno (Chief of Staff, U.S. Army): "With sequestration, my assessment is that the Nation would incur an unacceptable level of strategic and operational risk." (November 2, 2011)

Gen. James F. Amos (Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps): "We as a nation don’t even know, or have not got a sense of appreciation for, the impact that sequestration’s going to have on the Department of Defense… I don’t think we understand the magnitude of the impact that sequestration would have." (November 14, 2011)

Adm. Jonathan Greenert (Chief of Naval Operations, U.S. Navy): "…[I]n my view sequestration will cause irreversible damage. It will hollow the military and we will be out of balance in manpower, both military and civilian, procurement and modernization. We are a capital intensive force and going in and summarily reducing procurement accounts here and there will upset quite a bit of our industrial base, which in my view, if we get into sequestration, might be irrecoverable." (November 2, 2011)