Time to Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

There appears to be confusion surrounding the current realities of national security budgeting, even amongst influential lawmakers.  It is increasingly obvious that those in the know are ignoring the basic understanding that national security budgets and policy have always operated in synergy and always will.  Our own Gordon Adams recently pointed out:

We would not have had a strategy review last year, in the middle period between regular four year reviews, were it not for the reality that resources are not going to grow as previously projected….And wasn’t it smart to have a strategy review, instead of just salami slicing the budget in every direction, knowing that resources would be less generous than thought?

This apparent disconnect between how the defense budget is built and how people perceive it being built is a critical issue. There are many factors that are taken into consideration when planning national security budgets, especially under times of fiscal restraint, and distorting the truth only complicates the process.