Obama vows strong military despite cuts

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama vowed yesterday the United States will remain the world's pre-eminent military power even as the Pentagon scales back spending, shrinks the Army and Marine Corps and pulls back from Europe.

In a rare appearance at the Pentagon, Obama said the United States is "turning a page" after having killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, withdrawn troops from Iraq and begun to wind down the war in Afghanistan.

Obama outlined a vision that would ensure an uncompromised military strength operating with less money.

"Our military will be leaner, but the world must know the United States is going to maintain our military superiority," Obama said, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey at his side.

Obama said his administration would not repeat the mistakes made after World War II and Vietnam when large reductions left the military ill-prepared for the next conflict. "As commander in chief, I will not let that happen again," he said. "Not on my watch."

Panetta and Dempsey said they anticipate heavy criticism of their new strategy, which is meant to guide future military budgets, including the 2013 spending plan that Obama will submit to Congress in February.

The criticism from Republicans came quickly.

Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, issued a statement saying, "This is a lead-from-behind strategy for a left-behind America." He called it a "retreat from the world in the guise of a new strategy."

Dempsey, though, praised the strategy and the work of crafting it, calling it inclusive and comprehensive.

"It's not perfect," the general said. "There will be people who think it goes too far. Others will say it doesn't go nearly far enough. That probably makes it about right. It gives us what we need."

Obama said the strategy overhaul is designed to contend with hundreds of billions of dollars in budget cuts and refocus the United States' national security priorities after a decade dominated by the post.-Sept. 11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The strategy, devised through a comprehensive review by civilian and military leaders, centered on the military the country needs after the "long wars of the last decade are over," Obama said.

Panetta said that smaller military budgets will mean trade-offs and that the United States will take on "some level of additional but acceptable risk."

But Panetta said that at this point in history, in a changing world, the Pentagon would have been forced to make a strategy shift anyway.

The money crisis merely forced the government's hand, he said.