Word is that the Administration may find big cuts—like the $32 billion proposed by Acting Defense Undersecretary Gordon England (DR 11/07/05)—to the defense budget hard to come by. If you hearken to a Bloomberg News Service report, it won’t be the Democrats curdling the Administration’s cream, but fellow Republicans. There are those who say we must maintain and even increase defense spending in light of the Global War on Terror. Then there’s the view that we must cut everywhere to help pay for the war and recent hurricanes. We haven’t heard the fat lady sing yet.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.