the pentagon will do what it needs to do.will go back to congress and say, now we need the money to make up for things we spend money on the war. host: this comes from twitter. guest: that is a tough question. i do not know. once you get up to major, lieutenant colonel, you are getting close to that number. they indoor tremendous hardships and often cannot buy a home because they are a mother around so much. there are a lot of sacrifices that goes on. host: scott in woodbridge, virginia. caller: good morning. i am a former marine and a military brat. my father retired from the navy. i have a long history of active duty. i think there is misinformation going on this morning. talk about $800 billion for the wars in the middle east. we spent double that on the stimulus plan. we've just talked on to the baseline and nobody says anything. you want to talk about military being overpaid. all these lieutenant colonel sit and above. compare with those of the civilian federal military force -- volume work force, i would like to see tho

it's the pentagon. and, you know, there was a time when i was a conservative, and i thought if you want to cut the pentagon budget, you must be some kind of come -- comey that hates america. the pentagon in the department of defense and the only department not subject to audit, that doesn't mean they fail the awe cut or look at all the things they found. they're not subject to audit. what we've been finding figuring out is piece by piece is that for example, since 9/11 in the nine years after 9/11, the pentagon budget went up. the increase in the pentagon budget was $2 trillion. $1 trillion went to the war, the other trillion nobody knows where it went to because the air force has been scaled back, the navy has been scaled back, the army increased margely, but it it's budget was vastly increased. where did the money go? and i think this is a crisis that we're enduring that is going have to require both liberals and conservative to rethink re-examine some of the sacred cows and say we can't afford to say

the pentagon wants to make sure that it stays that way.ndent chris lawrence reports on the battle to stop real-live terminators from taking to the skies. >> reporter: behind every missile, there's an actual human being, someone back at base remotely pulling the trigger. but the pentagon is preparing for the day when robots are capable of killing on their own. >> the machines, they're starting to take over. >> reporter: it conjures up images of "the terminator." >> if we uplink now, sky net will be in control of your military. >> you'll be in control of sky net, right? >> reporter: the pentagon just issued its first directive on autonomous weapons, forbidding the development of lethal weapons with no human control to minimize failures that could lead to unintended engagements. >> that's a sterile term meaning harming innocent, killing the wrong target. zblg t >> reporter: the pentagon admits these weapons are still 20, 30 years away. >> why now? >> the thought was technology is dynamic, and we'd like to get out ahead of it. >> reporter: jus

host: what is on the table for the pentagon? guest: everything can be cut, but the president has the power to exempt military personnel, and he has indicated that he would do that. everything else is basically on the table. weapons systems, operations maintenance accounts, protected service member salary, all of those services are part of the great man's budget. host: what about procurement? caller: things that they buy. -- guest: things that they buy. and again, all of those programs, like the 30 -- like a fighter jet, that is on the table as well. host: military construction, what is that? guest of the money that the military spends to build the bases and various other facilities. host: testing and evaluation, is that big money? guest: it can be. before weapons systems are built there is a whole research and development fund. host: let's talk about what is not on the table. guest: the military personnel are not on the table. retirement, mandatory spending, not on the table. pensions for people who have retired from the militar

i think that's the likeliest area of actual conflict. >> the pentagon will often say and right now the.s. spends something like 4, 5, 6 times what china spends on its defense spending. and the big question then becomes what is china's intention? (instrumental music) >> in a national call to arms defense secretary leon panetta warned the threat of a significant cyber attack against america is already here. >> the collective result of these kinds of attacks could be a cyber pearl harbor. >> what are the threats american's face in this century? with the attacks of september 11th, the u.s. has had to completely rethink how it defends its citizens. the enemy no longer a national armies but rather determined individuals. >> there are not going to be a lot of countries that are gonna be stupid enough to put tank armies out in the desert against us anymore to allow us to annihilate them. what the lessons of history of the last twenty years or so certainly teach us is that if you're fight us, you can have greater success by using terrorist tactics, by employing suicide bombers, i.e.d.'s, those

by the way, i think it is a great opportunity to discipline the pentagon. that is going to be a decision potentially vulnerable to political decisions in the white house about how one where and why and when american military force is going to be used. the dilemma that you have today is that this is not the more dangerous world. we have never been as secure as we are today, but the reality is, we don't know what's coming in the future. we don't know. and we therefore don't know what kinds of forces are going to need. i believe that we are not likely in any near-term future to meet the face of the deploy significant large american knowledge resources on a big invasion stabilization convention of were stabilization mission. in fact, the redraw concedes that. basically our guard to do that anymore. i think in fact a good discipline for a heated sequester or the drawdown in the pentagon is going to retailer and from the forces into the kinds of smaller capacities, more likely to be used to have been used typically of the last 20 years. >> defense secretary leon

i want to go to my colleague barbara starr, our pentagon correspondent who is live on the phone. clearly this has to set off the alarm bells within the pentagon staff. >> reporter: oh, i think there is no way around it. this is huge news. that one little sentence you just read, initial indications are the missile deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit, the north koreans had been trying for years to put a satellite in to space by all indications what they have achieved now with this orbit is doing something very close to that, if not that itself. an object that appeared to achieve orbit. the u.s. military and the intelligence community has determined that tonight, by going back through the satellite and intelligence data that they quickly collected about this north korean launch in determining they did manage to put something in to orbit. by all accounts the first time north kraen korea has been able to do this and it is what you were just talking about. did they really do it on their own or did they get some crucial technology help from some other country? >> does this

cut to the pentagon's already requested six hundred. twenty. welcome to have thank you sir pleased to be here thank you what impact first of all will the sequester ration part of the the the automatic defense cuts that were written in back last year when they couldn't work out a deal away have if they were going to effect well it would be a fairly significant impact not so much because of the magnitude of the cuts over a ten year period as it is you have to cut fifty four point seven billion in the nine months remaining in this fiscal year across the board in all the programs without the ability to prioritize that so sounds like a mess it is a mess and also you cannot cut any funds from obligated money that is money that has already been contracted with someone to purchase something and in addition military personnel are exempt so what's left you have to take a big swac out of it well personnel is about a third of the total pentagon. and it but it includes all other sensible cold operations operations but that has to do with all the money to ma

had added eight billion and programs that the pentagon did not need or want which would cost seventy four b. and over a ten year period now proportionally that's not extremely high when you're talking about cuts of fifty four b. but nor is it ends and if it can and it prevents the pentagon from prioritizing to maximize the effectiveness of defense dollars for security i think it was a nine hundred fifty. they have a speech to the american association of newspaper editors that sometimes referred to as the cross of iron speech where he talked about you know one bomber equals fifty four thousand barrels of we didn't you know every plane made as a signifies a theft essentially from the hungry but the larger point that he was making was that if you build a weapon of war and a bomb for example and you drop it on somebody that money is just gone whereas if you build a hospital or a school for the same cost it continues to generate revenue for generations and so while we certainly need a military and we should have a smart military. just using the military as a jobs program seems like about

. >> jobs at the pentagon may be in jeopardy when we go over the fiscal cliff. they are not the only military related work at stake. northern virginia bureau chief jeff goldberg is live at the pentagon tonight. >> last week, defense secretary leon panetta said day-to-day operations would likely not change dramatically if we go over the fiscal cliff. any potential layoffs would probably not happen immediately. workers are watching this very closely. watching children skate round and round is how many americans would describe what they're watching right now on capitol hill. >> it is absolutely unconscionable. >> in the pentagon, it is alarming. it would lead to sequestration across the board government cuts. the planning has already begun for temporary layoffs. civilian furloughs could impact up to 800,000 workers. >> it feels like a punch in numbers gut. >> she works with the faa. >> a lot of uneasiness, nobody knows what things will happen. everyone is nervous. >> it is really having an impact on everyone. >> she is a server in pentagon city. 70 or 80% of custom

. >> there's a tendency, though, to look at defense and national security as marle the pentagon what. do we need to do from the whole of government standpoint? some of the other departments are being hit harder. state department, for example. >> this is admittedly a weakness of the report. our mandate was to only look at the defense budget. we should be looking at the whole international affairs budget because we have to take a whole of government approach to solving these international problems. the military is not particularly good at some things, where diplomacy or development aid would be much more help. so i would like to see an integrated budget. that's not going to happen. the congress won't allow to the happen. but at least in our thinking, in the administration's thinking, they could pool resources and look at trade- offs between defense and state. >> barry, thanks very much. at least that's a hope for to 13. >> i hope. so thank you very much. >> coming up, how the pentagon and intelligence agencies are exploiting social media. you're watching "this week in defense news." >>>

most of that cost fifty over fifty percent the cost of pentagon is personnel you so we're in full and i'm not i but the point i want to get a number to the point i want to make is that we're not paying our sergeants what the chinese are paying their sergeant all the rights over to me and halliburton one hundred fifty thousand dollars per person for their people that we hire are paying a quarter million dollars a person for some of the other defense contractor however it has been but is a defense bill just business for about five years so we want to go through what its legacy company should be a little short neal neal we're it's always a pleasure guys forgot to be mine day if i don't say oh interview you want me to play the world and gently but. after the break millions of americans in various states will see an increase in minimum wage come two thousand and twelve mean they'll have more money to spend to help support the economy if an increase in the minimum wage could help rebuild this nation's struggling economy why hasn't washington done it yet. if. you give you. a gift few pieces.

over fifty percent of the cost of the pentagon is personnel and that right now we're actually cutting military personnel and the army the air force. doing instead of that is we should be increasing the number of personnel that we have in order to lengthen deployments so that in deployment cycles well well if you have an aircraft carrier you know if you have nine aircraft carriers or twelve aircraft carriers you know there's a certain deployment schedule you can you know because they go out for eight months and then they come back if you have more aircraft carriers you can stretch out those to punish starting the draft. a draft no let's get let's what was all europeans are so you're only our hero richard nixon started the all volunteer army and its military and it's worked out very well i think it's worked out very badly i don't think most americans i don't i think that if we if we had a draft we would not have had the wars to recommend against. well that certainly would have been a problem for the people of afghanistan and iraq if you mean the over a million people who are dead now wh

largely targeted at the pentagon. and what is interesting is all of this deal making we are talking about on capitol hill would really just focus on unemployment benefits and tax side of the cliff as i mentioned and most of deals it appears would not shut off the so called sequester that would hit the pentagon. on "fox news sunday" senator lindsey graham told chris wallace he got a call from the defense secretary suggesting these cuts are coming. lake a listen. >> i was called by leon panetta at 7:30 during dinner. >> secretary of defense. >> this is the failure of the supercommittee to find $1.2 trillion in cuts. half of the 1.2 falls on defense who already cut. he says if we do this we will shoot the defense department in the head and send out 800,000 layoff notices the beginning of the year. he is worried to death if we don't fix sequestration we will destroy the biggest military in the world at the time we need it most. >> impact potentially on the national defense. also on the markets. the president noting in the

the pentagon can cut more. it just needs more time and less mindless rules to do so. could sequestration still be avoided? yes, lawmakers could strike a deal at the last minute to keep it from happening or stop it shortly after it takes effect. but no matter what happens with sequestration, d.o.d. should use this opportunity to prepare for what most think is inevitable. another 200 billion to $300 billion likely to be cut over the coming decade as part of any budget deal. in this fiscal and political climate, national security cuts will likely be demanded quickly. only by thinking ahead, prioritizing and rigorously driving reforms and slashing waste will the pentagon control its future rather than have its future deck at a timed -- dictated by powers beyond its control. thank you for joining us for "this week in defense news." you can watch this program on defensenewstv.com or e-mail me at vago@defensenews.com. i'll be back next week at the same time. ♪ ♪ no two people have the same financial goals. pnc works with you to understand yours and help plan for your retirem

just getting it confirmed on the fox report this hour from the pentagon, u.s.fficials telling us that general h. norman schwarzkopf who commanded the coalition that drove out saddam hussein forces in sue wait in 1991 known as stormin' norman has died tonight at the age of 78. we are waiting to learn more details about the situation. in tampa, florida, is where he was. that is about all of the detail we know about this. we are learning so much more from people who new him tonight on a personal note. we know his resume but general bob scales joins us now. he is a fox news military analyst and tonight someone who can tell us all about general norman schwarzkopf. wrote a book called "certain victor arery" about the history of the iraq war. you are back with us? >> i sure am. >> harris: i'm glad you are back. your perspective on this man is so helpful. way tonight get your thoughts again about the passing of general. >> i knew major schwarzkopf and his wonderful wife brenda when i was a captain. we both worked in the pentagon at the time and i remember that he was a

. >> rose: fighting over what within the pentagon? >> trying to make the first priority of the pentagon to be successful in the wars we were already in, the pentagon bureaucracy is structured to plan for war, not to wage war, and so getting badly needed equipment to the troops fast in months rather than in years or decades was just contrary to the nature of the building and it required a lot of effort to get them to do what i thought was the right thing, whether it was fixing walter reed and the way we treated our walter reed hospital and the way we treated our wounded warriors to armored vehicles to intelligence surveillance and recon sanls vehicles and drones, medivac and so on, it was it was a struggle. >> rose: as close as i have seen you tear up is when you talk about the responsibility of those men and women in harm's way. and you have said your legacy you hope is that they. >> rose:. > had their back to try and get them home safely and to care for them if you could. >> well, that is absolutely right and nothing means more to me

she's held several big jobs at the pentagon and is very well respected. ashton carter, currently the number two, he has actually spent the last few years wrangling with the defense industry and also with congress, so he comes in with that kind of nuts and bolts experience of how to work through this period of reshaping. >> and when you think about hagel's personal views on iran, because that's, i think, the most substantive of the foreign policy critiques against him, what are they and do they matter for this job? sometimes i hear him and it sounds more like a secretary of defense issue than a secretary of state issue. >> if you remember, it has not been a year since we had a crisis of going to war with iran, so i imagine we'll have at least one more with hagel's tenure. we should exhaust options before we think of a military strike on iran, and that, fortunately or unfortunately, depending how you look at it, a military strike on iran will not necessarily stop iran's nuclear program, and hagel has been quite skeptical about it, a skepticism which is shar

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will it be chuck hagel at the pentagon? that opens up all sorts of possibilities back in massachusetts. i want to talk about chuck hegel. this man came back from vietnam with two purple hearts. there is talk about him going to the pentagon but there are some republicans are not very happy with him. why? >> chuckagel was n to go to vietnam. he had orders to go to germany. he was at fort dix. he said i want to go to vietnam. in may and talk to the chaplain and psychologist, and after two weeks, he went to vietnam. he fought for his country, unlike his critics. he has bled for his country, unlike his critics. he understand war, unlike his critics. he did not have other priorities, like richard cheney, and never said it was going to be a cakewalk. he is prepared, ready, and bill cohen put it best. he has fought and bled for this country. he knows the subject matter. ask jim jones and other national security advisers. >> iraq and iran, that is what upsets people about shock hegel and some of the things he had to say about them.

will it be chuck hagel at the pentagon? which opens up all kinds of possibilities politically echo minister of massachusetts. i want to talk about chuck hagel. this is a man that came back from the number two purple hearts. talk about him going to the pentagon but there are some republicans who are not happy with his former republican senator from nebraska. why? >> chuck hagel was not to go to vietnam. he had orders to go to germany. he was at fort dix, new jersey and said i wanted to go to vietnam. in may and talk to the chaplain and psychologist and after two weeks, went to vietnam. he has fought for his country, unlike his critics. he has but pours countries, unlike his critics. he understands war, unlike his critics. he does not have other priorities, as richard cheney did at the same time in vietnam. he never said it was going to be a cakewalk. he is prepared, ready, and bill, and put it best. he has fought for his country and but for his country. he knows the subject matter. ask jim jones and other national security a

still plays a major role in the war in afghanistan and their camp integrity is gaining even more pentagon support we'll discuss the role of the private contractors in afghanistan coming up. and if you've got taxes on your income we're getting bad get ready for this uncle sam is looking for ways to fix the student debt crisis by taking money right out of borrowers paychecks a new solution to an old problem coming up. good evening it's wednesday december fifth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm christine freeze out and you're watching our team let's begin this evening with what happened yesterday in a vote of ninety eight to zero the senate passed the national defense authorization act of two thousand and thirteen after five days of debate and hundreds of amendments considered many within the senate were proud of the progress made and of the bipartisan support the bill got something frankly that's been rather rare and capitol hill these days the bill now has to house senate conference committee where it will be discussed and differences between the house version of the bill hammered out howeve

pentagon sources tell nbc news that syria is preparing chemical weapons for the possible use against the military people in the form of aerial bombs. jim miklaszewski reports. >> reporter: as the fighting grows more intense and syrian rebels close in on damascus, the syrian regime has turned increasingly desperate. u.s. officials tell nbc news the syrian military loaded the precursor chemicals for sarn nerve gas into aerial bombs. that could be dropped from dozens of syrian fighter bombers. this week u.s. intelligence detected a flurry of activity at chemical weapons sites like this one. while u.s. officials confirm the precursor chemicals are loaded, they must still be mixed together to create the deadly sarin gas. the development shook the world. president obama and secretary of state hillary clinton issued strong warnings to syria's president assad that there would be serious consequences if he used chemical weapons. >> it's the point of no return. they're going to lose any sort of backing that they had from the chinese and russians in terms of blocking the u.n. vote. and it's my

we'll start with martin at the pentagon. >> reporter: u.s. intelligence so far has not detected any signs syria is loading chemical weapons on to aircraft, but defense secretary panetta said it appears the embattled assad regime is preparing to do just that. >> there is no question that we remain very concerned very concerned that as the opposition advances, in particular on damascus that the regime might very well consider the use of chemical weapons. >> reporter: monitoring of syrian basis like this one has

david martin hat the pentagon has been talking to his sources. >> reporter: this is a commercial satellite photo of a syrian chemical weapons base. u.s. monitoring of roughly two dozen bases like this indicates the assad regime has begun preparing its chemical weapons for use.

to quote at arnall mullen again, he said the pentagon budget was basically doubled in the last decade and in doubling the ability to prioritize to make the decisions to deutsch analyses to make trades. we also need a review of the defense strategy that makes sure that we are preparing for the threats and risks of the 21st century, not those of the past. the efforts on the longest lines to help advance the best ideas for improving our defense strategy. earlier this year, we've funded the project by the simpson center that brought together 15 defense experts to examine our strategic defense priorities in some detail and how they should be reformed. today we announce a new coalition for the fiscal and national security. the coalition chaired by admiral mullen includes national's senior security if the defense and economic from both republican and democratic administrations stretching back to more than 30 years as well as leaders in the congress and putting some very distinguished gentleman here today. all served the nation with distinction, and they are joining together now to say very c

we see for a second time a trial balloon, chuck hagel, floated for the pentagon. all of this and commercial being bought and aired, admittedly only in the d.c. area and on cable, but they're spending real money, and are you seeing the conservative line-up against chuck hagel even before he has been nominated for the pentagon. you covered him on the hill. let's talk about why some of his fellow republicans are going after him so hard. >> that's the important point. he is a republican, and that would give the president an opportunity to look more bipartisan in his cabinet, so that's an important reason why his name is being floated. there's been a lot of concern among republicans that he was not as loyal to his party as they would have liked to have seen. some comments with respect to iran that they disagreed with. some of the challenges during chuck hagel's time here, there are long memories here, and when you talk about the delay of making any announcements about cabinet positions, it does open up this space for the criticism to flow in. it's in part due to the tr

but the pentagon has told the obama administration it would require more than 75,000 soldiers to secure syria's chemical weapons stockpile. it's impossible to say exactly how much that would cost. but the price tag for that sort of operation could easily run into the billions of dollars. now, again, there is no indication at all that such an operation will happen any time soon. all this coming just days after president obama warned the syrian regime of consequences if it turned chemical weapons on its own citizens. and today secretary of state hillary clinton saying the world has made that perfectly clear to president bashar assad. >> we have sent an unmistakable message that this would cross a red line and those responsible would be held to account. >> activists saying at least 40,000 people have died in the antigovernment uprising that began last year. now evidence the blood shed is again seeping across another border into lebanon. gunmen loyal to the syrian regime and rebels fought it out on the streets in the northern part of that country. dozens reported dead in two days of fightin

the pentagon has military specifications.is sometimes buying these things and extremely low quantities. it means they're buying one hammer, not 10 or 15 or 20,000 hammers. all of this gets more efficient when you bring down the resources overall and discipline the budget so you are not spending those kinds of money. host: we heard from a caller earlier who was a defense contractor who said, i have a minimum to buy 10 bolts, but i only need one. so they only buy one, for $100. guest: that one bolt has the burden of all the contracting, even though it is only one. the defense logistics agency and the army have put together these contracts where a single contractor can pull from the commercial world, and as long as you give commercial specs and the contractor guarantees equality, you get these things at commercial rates and they are equal or better quality than the hammer you get if it was designed by the department of defense. guest: one of the interesting things happening in what used to be called the defense industrial base,

here's pentagon correspondent chris lawrence. >> reporter: to hear the pentagon tell it -- >> sequestrationfore if it were allowed to happen would introduce senseless chaos. >> reporter: the fiscal cliff -- >> sequestration will have a chaotic effect on the force. >> reporter: is akin to armageddon. >> what i worry about is being blind-sided by a huge cut because they don't have the strength or the courage or the guts to do what they have to do. >> happy holidays. >> reporter: the cliff would cut $500 billion in defense spending, but spread out over the next ten years. would these cuts really be that bad? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: analyst ben freeman argues the pentagon can survive on a smaller budget. >> sequestration happens it will drop a little bit but it's certainly not catastrophic or doomsday or any other sort of hyperbole they want to describe it as. >> reporter: perhaps the navy would have to buy less expensive, less advanced fighter jets instead of the new f-35. or the pentagon would have to cut the number of soldiers and marines back to the levels before 9/11. >> sequestrat

can we not go to the pentagon and say, you know what? now that there is no more soviet union, there is a much weaker russia, and i agree, russia won a war against georgia. they won a war against the country of georgia. i think the way we have armed the state of georgia, i'm not sure what the outcome would be if that was the war. but russia does not have anything like the capacity it had at the height of the cold war. we have still the capacity to destroy them. can we not say to the pentagon, you know, those three ways you have of destroying the soviet union, please pick two? would we not be very secure against a soviet nuclear attack if we had two instead of the three and could save billions of dollars? and now we're told also they must provide navigation through its global positioning system. we have to protect i'm told the trade routes everywhere in the world. we have to protect them against china. mitt romney got something right in his debate against the president when he said he's not afraid of toughening sanctions against china for

we had was within the pentagon. you would think that if you're sending more troops to afghanistan, those troops would go to places that were most critical, the places that the taliban were seeking to take over, the places that were most at risk, potentially a takeover of the country. instead, we wound up sending the first wave of new forces took part of the country with relatively few people. and i discovered the answer was simply tribal rivalries. not in afghanistan but in the pentagon. it turned out that the first wave of troops were u.s. marines. they wanted to bring their own helicopters, the own logistics. so they did was to work with u.s. army soldiers in the areas in and around the city of kandahar. it was this tale of our own services fighting with each other instead of fighting in common purpose against the enemy. and the stories go on. there was into fighting then the state department, within the u.s. agency for international development. and one other tale, i recount in some detail in the book, we had som

. >> for the first time since the passage of the budget control act of 2011, the pentagon today announcedamera briefing it's begun preparing for sequest race, and the harm it would do to national security. >> the white house said the mood should not be read as change in commitment to reach an agreement. >> this is act in response. that were is in stark contrast to the defense contractors in october. midst of the presidential campaign to hold off on issuing a 60-day notice of potential layoffs to workers required by law. >> for to us have gone this long a period of time, without making any preparations for it, i think is a gross disservice to the american people. >> for months the pentagon officials have been speaking descriptively about the impact of the cuts. >> face the prospect of budget sequestration. that would be devastating to national security. >> more detailed look comes from the economiststein fuller at george mason university. he finds that a $45.1 million reduction of purchase of military equipment at research and development alone would reduce gdp by $86.5 billion and result

so i'm confident that, you know, with a little longer-term view the pentagon can be fine. one of the things that the group agrees on is that both with that time and where we are in terms of our overall requirements in a changing world, the advancement of technology, the quality of the people we have -- and they're the best i've seen in over 43 years of having the privilege to wear the uniform -- that we will be fine from a defense standpoint. but i also would pick up on what senator nunn said, quoting bill perry. and i've seen this in countries and in regions globally where the failure to be able to invest in preventive defense, engagement, having a relationship, helping other militaries train in their own countries, the not being able to do that just increases the likelihood of some kind of conflict breaking out which may or may not involve us. and that preventive piece is one of the first pieces that leaves under this kind of pressure. i do think that with, you know, if this is well done, creating a framework that the national security team moving forward can put somethi

not as the pentagon, but the state department.and more other parts of our government involved in national security. >> from politico -- i am wondering if there is consensus among the groups about the size of cuts the pentagon can weather. a second question, how do we know whether they have merely kick the can down the road, or if they have laid the groundwork for a lot -- a larger deal in 2013. what will those look like? thank you. >> i think there is -- the pentagon has taken approximately the 2012 and 2013 budgets, assuming the budget goes into effect, about $900 billion out. i think there is consensus in terms of what senators warner and nunn have said, we need to do this over an extended period time in a way that has a gradual flows of the pentagon can actually plan for the future. if we take out another $500 billion, which is in sequestration, and the way, as i understand, the way the law requires the cuts to be taken, axe right at thea middle, which will be very difficult to do in any smooth way. i am confident that with a l

here's cnn pentagon correspondent chris lawrence. >> reporter: to hear the pentagon tell it -- >> sequestration it were allowed to happen, would introduce senseless chaos. >> reporter: the fiscal cliff -- >> sequestration will have a chaotic infect on the force. is akin to armageddon. >> what i worry about is being blindsided by a huge cut because they don't have the strength or the courage or the guts to do what they have to do. >> happy holidays. >> reporter: the cliff would cut $500 billion in defense spending but spread out over the next ten years. would these cuts really be that bad? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: analyst ben freeman says the pentagon can survive on a smaller budget. >> sequestration happens, it will drop a little bit. it's certainly not catastrophic or doomsday or any of other sort of high penitentiaryb hyperbole. >> reporter: perhaps the navy has to buy less advanced fighter jets. or the pentagon would have to cut the number of soldiers and marines back to the levels before 9/11. >> sequestration would risk hollowing out our force. >> reporter: pentagon officials say go

still plays a major role in the war in afghanistan and their camp integrity is gaining even more pentagon support will discuss the role of private contractors in afghanistan coming up. and uncooperative u.s. senators fell five votes short of ratifying a u.n. treaty to protect the disabled this in spite of unflinching support by key republicans and an unexpected appearance by bob dole had we'll take a look on why a hundred senators couldn't agree up to a treaty that one hundred fifty five nations could. well it's wednesday december fifth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine you're watching r t. starting off this hour yesterday in a vote of ninety eight zero the senate passed the national defense authorization act of two thousand and thirteen after five days of debate and hundreds of amendments considered many which in the senate were proud of the progress made and of the bipartisan support the bill had something rather rare these days on capitol hill the bill now now heads to a house senate conference committee where it will be discussed and differences between the house version of the

mandatory spending cuts putting pressure on the pentagon. can it still do the job of protecting america if a zeal not reached in washington? >> gregg: just days after a major storm, a nay one is following right on its heels. we're tracking the latest. >> and reading, writing and guns new push to protect our kids in schools after the sandy hook tragedy. >> it is legal in utah. >> i actually brought a holster but nobody would know i could easily git get it and stays on me all day. card gives you 1% cash back on all purchases, plus a 50% annual bonus. and everyone...but her likes 50% more cash. but i'm upping my game. do you want a candy cane? yes! do you want the puppy? yes! do you want a tricycle? yes! do you want 50 percent more cash? no! ♪ festive. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card gives you 1% cash back on every purchase plus a 50% annual bonus on the cash you earn. it's the card for people who like more cash. what's in your wallet? vision expanding to a 5-inch 1080p hd display and camera. touch acquiring nfc. hearing ev

a gloom and doom scenario that the pentagon says. but is it?as a closer look. >> reporter: to hear the pentagon tell it -- >> sequestration, therefore if it were allowed to happen, will introduce senseless chaos. >> the fiscal cliff -- >> sequestration will have a chaotic effect on the force. >> reporter: is akin to armaggedon. >> i worry about being blindsided by a huge cut because they don't have the strength or courage or guts to do what they have to do. >> happy holidays. >> reporter: the cliff would cut $500 billion in defense spending, but spread out over the next ten years. would these cuts really be that bad? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: analyst ben freeman argues the pentagon can survive on a smaller budget. >> it will drop a little bit. but not catastrophic, doomsday, any sort of hyperbole. >> reporter: perhaps the navy would have to buy less expensive, less advanced fighter jets instead of the new f-35. or the pentagon would have to cut the number of soldiers and marines back to the numbers before 9/11. >> sequestration would risk

the pentagon released the s.e.a.l.'ty and where he is from. >>> another off the field devastating incident. josh brent out on bail charged in a drunk driving accident that took the life of his friend and teammate. how the team is responding. >>> tea party leader dick armey on the tear if you will against the republican party after leaving his job at a conservative superpac. it is just one of the things we thought you should know today. >>> you can join our conversation. you can find us. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about low-cost investing. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're committed to offering you tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 low-cost investment options-- tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 like our exchange traded funds, or etfs tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 which now have the lowest tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 operating expenses tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 in their respective tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lipper categories. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lower than spdr tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and even lower than vanguard. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800

of course that is when the steep automatic spending cuts would slash budgets at the pentagon and otherernment agencies. let's bring in "usa today" washington bureau chief susan page and "the washington post" congressional reporter ed o'keefe. good morning to both of you and happy new year. >> good morning. >> same to you. >> the senate returns in about an hour. how close are they? what are you hearing? >> you know, i think it is conceivable that we'll have a new year's eve miracle and there will be a deal but i think the safe bet is against it. for this to happen in the next 14 hours you need to have no senator object to a majority vote, you know, any senator can start to filibuster and force the vote total up to 60 to continue working on any kind of deal they reach. and then you need john boehner to agree and house republicans to agree to bring it up in the same version or very similar version and i think the hurdles that have prevented us from getting a deal for two years are still there. so, i mean, we'll see what the next 14 hours brings but i wouldn't be too optimistic. >> if the

on the other hand, as i said, he would be, by the standards of pentagon leadership, which is its ownric, he would be a more liberal, more reformist voice for a more multilateral and constrained pentagon policy, yet he's running into all this opposition. >> exactly, and if you look at people opposing him, these are neocons because he stood up to cheney when cheney had the vader hat on. he was strong enough to stand up to his party on the iraq war. for the love of god, last time i checked, president obama is the president of the united states. we don't have to personally love each and every one of them. it's his choice. let us stop having neoconservatives in the senate choose the entire obama cabinet. >> in theory, i think you're right. in practice -- >> that means he doesn't agree with you. >> i think you make good points. the truth is the person who's going to set the policy and agenda is barack obama. he's very hands on. it's really a symbolic fight. the question is do you need a symbolic fight when you can get somebody else to do what you want just as well without going through com