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V. American Leadership In the World -
Military Readiness
"More than anything else, our armed forces guarantee our security
and our global influence. They are the backbone of our diplomacy. They
ensure our credibility....Time and again, the American military has
demonstrated its extraordinary skills. As I pledged from the beginning
of our administration, the United States will have the best-equipped,
best-trained, best-prepared military in the world. We are keeping that
promise every day. Our forces are ready to fight."
-- President Clinton
Veterans of Foreign Wars, March 6, 1995
Overview
The President is committed to maintaining the best-equipped,
best-trained and best-prepared military in the world. Military
readiness is central to supporting our strategy of fighting
and winning two nearly simultaneous major regional conflicts (MRC). Our
military will continue to possess the capability of deterring and
defeating aggression in two MRCs, providing a credible overseas
presence, countering weapons of mass destruction, contributing to
multi-lateral peace operations, and supporting counterterrorism efforts
and other national security objectives.
Prior Readiness-Related Initiatives
The two-MRC strategy also means doing what we must to fully realize the
capabilities of our forces. We demonstrated that commitment in 1994 when
the administration won key votes in Congress on the C-17 program, an air
frame that demonstrated its great value and versatility when it flew
66,000 pounds of cargo to the Persian Gulf during our reinforcement of
Kuwait in October 1994.
During his first two years of office, President Clinton took the
following readiness-related initiatives:
In 1994, he increased the Budget Authority for the 1995 defense
budget by $2.4 billion and added $11.4 billion back to the defense
spending plan across the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP)
In
the FY 1995 defense budget, President Clinton increased Operations and
Maintenance funding by 5.7%, even though the size of the force decreased
by 7%. In other words, the dollars available for readiness purposes in
FY 1995 on a per-soldier basis were substantially increased. This
resulted in a higher level of military readiness.
Committed to the Future
The administration is committed to the following readiness-related
initiatives:
Adding $25 billion in defense spending over the next six years. This future funding is designed specifically
to accomplish four goals:
Assure continued military readiness;
Adequately fund the Bottom Up Review (BUR) and Nuclear Posture
Review (NPR) conventional and nuclear force structures;
Improve the quality-of-life of the men and women
in our Arme Forces (including the full pay raise authorized under
current law): and
Fund needed modernization programs.
Working closely with Congress to develop an effective funding mechanism
to pay for unexpected contingency operations. Secretary Perry is
committed to finding a way for DoD to borrow from future operations and
maintenance funds to pay for contingency operations.