Obama would maintain military spending

Democratic candidate Barack Obama is unlikely to make any quick cuts in US defense spending as president despite pledging to rely less on military power than President Bush, an adviser to the Illinois senator said on July 1. "It's hard to see how we could spend less on the military in the near term," Richard Danzig, a former navy secretary who advises Senator Obama on national security, said. He said current Pentagon budget projections also appeared to underestimate the cost of new weapons programs. Bush has submitted a budget of more than $500 billion for the Pentagon for the next fiscal year, which begins in October. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost some $160 billion a year on top of that. US military spending made up about 45 percent of the world total in 2007, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks defense budgets. Senator Obama has also said he wants to send at least two more combat brigades -- the equivalent of between 6,000 and 10,000 soldiers -- to Afghanistan. He has accused Bush of neglecting the fight in Afghanistan to pursue an unnecessary war in Iraq. The United States has 145,000 troops in Iraq and 32,000 in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon. Danzig said he could not say precisely when more troops would go to Afghanistan under Senator Obama but stated: "I don't see it as very far off, I think it's a priority." The violent south of Afghanistan in particular needed a "more muscular US presence," he said. Danzig said Senator Obama also supported current efforts to build a new missile system.