Panetta Must Fight Four Wars: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Waste -- Boston.com editorial
WHEN LEON Panetta takes the helm at the Defense Department tomorrow, he will be facing difficult choices about the US military efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. But an equally pressing — and potentially even more intractable — problem is the Pentagon’s budget and spending. Outgoing secretary Robert Gates was good at paying lip service to the need to control spending; he noted recently that “the United States should spend as much as necessary on national defense, but not one penny more.’’ But the department’s baseline budget has risen every year since Gates took over — from $450 billion to more than $550 billion four years later. This year alone, the Pentagon is seeking a 3.4 percent increase from its 2010 budget.
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My Comment: Fighting Four wars!?!?!? I am counting six if you add this hot spot and this one. The war on terror is (also) another conflict .... but because of it's general nature, I am incorporating that conflict as "the general one".