Pentagon to cut 90,000 troops amid budget crunch

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Pentagon laid out plans to cut 70,000 Army troops and 20,000 Marines over the next five years in a major push to reduce military spending amid a federal budget crunch, DPA reported.

The active army will be resized to 490,000 troops, down from 562,000, in an effort to rein in spending after a decade of costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Marines Corps will see a resizing to 182,000 from 202,000.

At the same time, the Defense Department will request 525 billion dollars for its fiscal 2013 base budget, a savings of 6 billion dollars from 2012 that has already been approved by Congress, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters in Washington.

The Pentagon announcement reflects a new strategy, laid out earlier this month, of a leaner and meaner U.S. military that is more technologically adept, and one that will focus on perceived threats from the rise of China. It also comes after Congress and the White House agreed last summer to slash 487 billion dollars from the military's overall budget over the next decade.

Panetta listed a number of threats on the horizon, including a nuclear armed Iran, which represents a “threat to us and to the world.” North Korea, which allegedly has nukes, also remains a threat. Turmoil in the Middle East and the ongoing fight against terrorism also remain concerns, he said.

U.S. Senator John McCain, a Republican and military hero from the Vietnam War, blasted the Pentagon's new defence-cutting measures as repeating the “mistakes of history.” In a statement on his website, the 2008 presidential candidate said he is “deeply concerned” that the cuts would “leave our forces too small to respond effectively to events that may unfold over the next few years.”