Cuts in defense spending that will be mandated if the United States goes over the fiscal cliff would bring America’s military capabilities to “a new low,” retired Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely told Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview.
“The downsizing of the military now and being more efficient is certainly a goal, but at a time when we have serious threats against the United States, cutting of billions of dollars from the Defense Department really needs to be looked at even more closely now in light of what’s going on in the Middle East,” he said.
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The cuts would be “basically fracturing the fleets and the aircraft, taking them down to a new low as far as our international capability.
“We need to go through something like this but certainly our leaders in Washington can keep the nation safe if they make the right decisions about making sure that our troops are funded properly.
“The way we did it in the past, we would look at the threats out there against the United States, then we would form and develop and organize our armed forces to meet those threats, and then you would find out how much that organization needs in terms of arms, men, equipment, women, whatever the case may be, and then you would fund that to meet the threats.
“Now they do it altogether backwards. They’ve got to get back on the track of looking at the threats, organizing our military to counter those threats and neutralize them, and then have that funding. That’s how you have to do it and they’re not doing it that way.”
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