’08 hopefuls would grow the military

Despite their stark differences on Iraq, presidential frontrunners from both parties are vowing to increase the size of the military if elected as commander in chief.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) are the two Democrats who openly discuss cutting the defense budget, according to a survey conducted by The Hill.

{mosads}Unlike many Democrats who ran for the White House before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, most of the 2008 Democratic candidates say they are planning to build a robust military.

At a time when they are being criticized by the GOP for seeking to withdraw troops from Iraq, most of the Democratic candidates have adopted aggressive stances on growing the military. These White House hopefuls say they want to spend much more money on troops at every level.

The Republican candidates, meanwhile, are walking a political tightrope: on one hand wanting to support President Bush’s plan to keep troops in Iraq, but on the other seeking to distance themselves from how he has managed the military.

Even though he is one of the most fervent defenders of Bush’s troop surge in Iraq, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has criticized Bush on issues ranging from military detainee treatment to healthcare for veterans.

The Democratic contenders often attack Bush’s defense policies and warn that the next president will have to pour a lot of money into a military force that has been depleted through extended combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 They also note that the U.S. is spending billions of dollars every month in Iraq, money that could be spent on domestic initiatives.

Nevertheless, faced with the sobering reality of overstretched ground forces and an ever-expanding list of war-torn equipment, the majority of 2008 Republican and Democratic White House candidates promise to pour resources into repairing and restoring the military.

Most of the candidates, with some notable exceptions, agree that the size of U.S. ground forces should be bolstered.

The Bush administration earlier this year announced plans to augment the size of the Army by 65,000 soldiers and the Marine Corps by 27,000.

Democratic frontrunners Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are among those who support an increase in the size of ground forces.

Clinton’s campaign has not revealed many details about her national defense policies.

In a statement to The Hill, her campaign remarked, “Sen. Clinton will have one priority when it comes to national defense — she will do what is right to protect America.”

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Clinton has advocated for a boost in permanent troop numbers.

Obama said he backs current plans to increase the Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 troops. Under his defense plan, more resources would be committed to counter-insurgency and intelligence expertise as well as language and cultural skills.

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) and Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) also want to see an enhancement in military numbers. Biden is advocating a larger concentration of special-operations forces and the creation of a civilian corps that would respond to post-conflict emergencies worldwide.

However, the candidates did not offer any details about how they plan to recruit more ground forces.

The next president will likely face a significant challenge in recruiting, as the military services already have lowered their recruitment standards, pushing recruitment spending to 20 times more than they spent before Iraq.

Unlike most of his opponents, Richardson is open to cutting the defense budget after implementing a plan to withdraw from Iraq and redeploy some of the forces to Afghanistan. He said he would use the unencumbered funds to reduce the deficit, ensure universal healthcare and improve education.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) did not elaborate on his plans for the military, but said he would stop funding “the flawed strategy in Iraq” and use funds to rebuild the Army and Marine Corps as well as prepare the military to counter terrorism. Former Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) declined to comment.

Among the Republicans, McCain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Rep. Duncan Hunter (Calif.) want to see a larger Army and Marine Corps.  

Romney recently announced plans to grow the military by 100,000, while McCain said he wanted to see a much larger permanent active-duty troop increase than announced by Bush, though he did not specify a number.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani did not respond to several requests for comment for this article.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) wants to cut international commitments and focus on domestic defense spending.

 The debate about the size of the military is not a new one. In the 2000 presidential election, Bush accused the Clinton administration of “hollowing out” the military during the 1990s. Yet it was his father, President George H.W. Bush, who initiated those cuts, along with a Democratic-controlled Congress.

With the Cold War over, the elder Bush slashed troop levels by 25 percent during a five-year period starting in 1990 and cut the defense budget by tens of billions of dollars.

Clinton further cut the defense budget for several years. But by 1998, with budget surpluses growing, Clinton and a GOP-controlled Congress began aggressively increasing Pentagon spending.

Some Democrats, like Biden, operate under the assumption that U.S. troops will withdraw from Iraq, a move that could save $75 billion a year.

In a statement to The Hill, Edwards said, “Undoing the damage that George Bush has done to our military will require substantial costs.”

Kucinich, who is pushing for the creation of a Department of Peace, has warned that the military-industrial complex drives senseless Pentagon spending.

Not surprisingly, the Republican candidates are more aggressive in their rhetoric about Pentagon spending. Romney wants to spend at least 4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), while Huckabee is planning on 6 percent.

The U.S. now spends about 3.9 percent of the GDP on defense, the largest slice of the federal government.  

McCain, Brownback, Hunter and Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) also believe in higher defense spending. McCain believes that setting an arbitrary GDP percentage is not the most effective way to craft a budget.