Budget cuts push Hagel to review Obama defense strategy
NewsMarch 21, 2013
WASHINGTON. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered a reevaluation of the defense strategy announced 14 months ago by President Barack Obama. Responding to budget cuts that went into effect on March 1, Hagel spokesman George Little says the Defense Secretary intends to “examine the choices” underlying the current strategy in order to "define the major decisions that must be made in the decade ahead to preserve and adapt our defense strategy."
Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta repeatedly acknowledged that automatic spending cuts would force the administration to rethink their January 2012 strategy, saying on June 1 that in such an event "we'd probably have to ... throw that strategy out the window." Rather than write a new strategy, however, Little says that Hagel’s review will take the 2012 strategy as a “point of departure” in light of current fiscal uncertainty.
Reevaluation of the defense strategy was ordered last week and will be executed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. Results of the review are expected by May 31.
