Defense budget a political football.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Defense Insider

* Since Congress passed deficit-reduction legislation in August that calls for reduced defense spending, rhetorical bombs have been lobbed nonstop inside the Beltway, Pro-defense interest groups and allied lawmakers are fighting back against any cuts. Fiscal hawks and supporters of a smaller military continue to argue for restraint and responsible spending.

Amid the breathless arguments, there are key questions that nobody has yet answered; In the post-Iraq and post-Afghanistan era, how large should the U.S. military be, and how much money should the nation invest in its security?

Discussions about defense spending, regrettably, have not been objective, say analysts. "We are not having an honest debate about defense," says James Jay Carafano, of the Heritage Foundation.

The Pentagon has not articulated what it foresees as its future missions and what resources might be required to execute them, says Carafano, That analytical void only exacerbates the demagoguery.

Christopher A. Preble, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the CATO Institute, says misinformation is getting in the way of a productive discussion on how to reprioritize military...