The Obama Defense Budget
National Security in a Time of Austerity
On January 5, 2012, President Barack Obama held a first-ever presidential press conference at the Pentagon, where he unveiled his administration’s Defense Strategic Review. During his speech, Obama outlined a new set of goals and strategy for the U.S. military — ones that reflect the ending of large-scale U.S. military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the changing nature of warfare in the twenty-first century, and the fiscal realities facing the United States, as record-breaking budget deficits force across-the-board reductions in federal spending. “Even as our troops continue to fight in Afghanistan, the tide of war is receding,” the president said….
