Report: Cuts Threaten Security

Budget cuts are threatening the ability of the armed services to meet mission requirements, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis (CSBA), a Washington-based think tank. Congress imposed the cuts just as the U.S. began scaling down combat operations in Afghanistan. The cuts did not, however, anticipate rising threats involving the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the territorial dispute between Russia and Ukraine, air strikes in Libya, and continuing tensions in Korea, CSBA analysts Michele Flournoy and Eric Edelman wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Post. The authors cited a report by the bipartisan National Defense Panel, which deemed the 2011 cuts a “serious strategic misstep.” Pilots cannot train adequately, and the Army lacks a sufficient number of combat-ready brigades, the authors stated. Moreover, the capability to sustain combat operations along several fronts has been jeopardized, they stated.