Deficit-buster proposals won't work without changes in U.S. defense strategy.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: DEFENSEINSIDER - Brief article

Although it could be months or years before actual cuts are made to the defense budget, it is no longer a question of if--despite forecasts by Defense Secretary Robert Gates of 1 percent growth a year--but how much of the Pentagon's funds will be on the table, experts predict.

But no debt-reduction proposals are going to be taken seriously unless they are accompanied by sweeping changes in U.S. military strategy and long-term objectives, analysts said. They call for sweeping reforms--a revised national security strategy that would allow the Pentagon to cut back and still ensure the security of the United States. That means having to make tough choices such as possibly reducing military commitments to police the globe and fundamentally restructuring the vast defense bureaucracies that were created to fight a third world war.

"The Defense Department's biggest...