the pentagon has considerable flexibility. it's also, by the way, easy to conceive of an agreement that which would leave the pain of sequestration, including, perhaps, some modest flexibility year over year. the other part of that equation, though, is that unlike all of those other draw downs, we have, today, present as part of the dynamic, the global financial market. we had -- i mean, the reason we got the budget control act and the sequestration reductions is the threat of default. now, i don't remember the exact clock ticking. i think the president submitted his request on the day that the house came back, so that would have been monday a week ago. so the 15 day clock will probably be reached next tuesday. and that means, i presume, on wednesday morning, our debt ceiling as a nation will go up $1.2 trillion, failing the passage by the resolution a disapproval and the override of a suspected president's veto. so the debt ceiling will go up, up until we hit it again. now, when are we going to hit it again? good news this mor

toes of the right look you know there was a pentagon spokesperson a guy by the name of geoff morrell and you knew geoff morrell was telling the truth because you start to sweat because he'd be lying everywhere all the other time and i was on i had this new radio show and it's like geoff morrell and reporter from mainstream publication i'm not going to mention and they and they sound the same you know and they're complement each other and saying with great jobs are both doing and look like if that's what you want to do you know i'm all for it understand is a lot of different the war going does that keep the public completely in the dark about was signing on in the war i mean this is this is a horrible thing we're now having in the middle of the longest war and u.s. history and you could say that the media might be partly to blame for completely playing along with with all of that one of the things you talk about is the first time in the job. president obama got into the tank in the pentagon and they thought that he seemed intimidated by them intimidated and then they saw that we could

personnel costs make up about a third of the pentagon's budget. when you include military personnel costs plus the defense health program, it's about a third of the pentagon budget and what they said yesterday is personnel costs are ohm taking one-ninth of the cuts. so that means that other parts of the budget are going to take a disproportionate share of the cuts because ultimately this is a zero sum game. they have a budget cap required by the budget control act they've got to fit in so procurement i think is actually going to get hit the hardest. we heard a lot of the program decisions yesterday. i imagine there are many more. we have yet to hear and those will come out over the coming days and weeks. the total savings that they're talking about, and again, this is the savings relative to last year's budget, it's $259 billion over the five-year plan. 25% of those savings are supposed to come from efficiencies. that's another $60 billion in efficiencies on top of $178 billion in efficiencies that was in last year's budget. boy, that's very optimi

recasting america's global military strategy or just more of the same broad obama's new vision for the pentagon is aimed at saving money while making the u.s. military more lean and mean critics charge this new mission is no different from the one obama inherited from the bush era the u.s. will remain the world's policeman. and. to cross-talk washington's new military strategy i'm joined by matthew rothschild in madison he is the editor of the progressive magazine in los angeles we have christian whiten he is a principal with d.c. international advisory and a former state department senior adviser and in london we crossed to frank jackson he is vice president of uniting for peace all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want but first let's see what mr obama has in mind for the pentagon. in light of budgetary mandates passed by congress last year requiring reduction in overall defense spending president barack obama has announced a new strategic initiative for the american military in contrast to his predecessors the president's plans no longer call f

that means you can jump in anytime you want but first let's see what mr obama has in mind for the pentagon. in light of budgetary mandates passed by congress last year requiring reduction in overall defense spending president barack obama has announced a new strategic initiative for the american military in contrast to his predecessors the president's plans no longer call for the u.s. to be able to fight two conventional wars simultaneously in different parts of the world and his vision for a smaller more nimble military america will be able to respond to asymmetrical threats like terrorism as well as the more conventional threats such as china's growing navy obama insisted that the cuts would not come at the expense of america's security we will stay vigilant especially in the middle east. as we look beyond the wars in iraq and afghanistan and the end of long term nation building with a large military footprint will be able to ensure our security with smaller conventional ground forces the white house and the pentagon are committed to increasing its presence in the asia pacific region whi

well it looks like the pentagon has potentially a nasty scandal on its hands another one that is that the u.s. marine corps says that it is investigative a shocking forty second video that surfaced today on lively going elsewhere on the internet in what appears to be u.s. soldiers urine eating on dead bodies in afghanistan how's that for winning hearts and minds for the video that you're about to see here there it is shows four men in full combat gear standing over three corpses relieving themselves it seems the men appeared to be joking during the incident at one point you can even hear one of the soldiers say have a great day buddy now the video does prove to be a legitimate some experts say that it's desecration it could even constitute as a war crime the anonymous person who posted it included the caption scout sniper team for with the third battalion second marines out of camp peeing on dead taliban's now the video and photos are sure to further and further relations that are already strained between washington and kabul and of course the bring back memories of another embarrassi

from the pentagon's point of view, these two are not connect. you can be making reductions for efficiency purposes with your domestic infrastructure at the same time as you are making your -- these two are in fact linked together, we have seen it where the typical mentality no matter where you are from, you say, you know what? before you close my base, why don't you go get those blank aircraft in blank base overseas and bring them home and put them here instead and until and unless the pentagon does a better job of reconciling that dispute, we are not likely to see movement forward. there's also a question of the role of politics here, and you know, each passing administration, each passing election cycle sees a little bit more penetration of politics into the bepentagon, many of yo have been at this over the course of careers that stretch back over decades, and we have all seen it. the attempts over the last month or so to a line the white house's own objectives with the pentagon's observes are worth lauding, it's useful to have some alignment,

we start our reporting with jim miklaszewski on duty tonight at the pentagon. jim, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. for the first time since 9/11, the pentagon is being forced to tighten its belt. to do that will take wholesale changes in the way the military does business. president obama came to the pentagon today as commander in chief to unveil his new military strategy aimed at cutting the pentagon's budget. the president acknowledged the new military will be leaner but insisted no less meaner. >> the united states is going to maintain our military superiority with armed forces that are agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats. >> reporter: a decade of war in iraq and afghanistan sapped the military and sent pentagon spending soaring up 71% in the past ten years. a bill that defense secretary leon panetta says the nation can no longer afford. >> all of this comes at a time when america confronts a very serious deficit and debt problem here at home, a problem which is itself a national security risk that is sque

from moscow coming up in the program shifting priorities at the pentagon. the u.s. on bail to its new military strategy ground wars are now seen as passe ending your kind of warfare is indoors i'll tell you more about it as i come back in just a few minutes. prosecutors in the trial of ousted egyptian president hosni mubarak called for death by hanging for him and his closest associates they justified the request by arguing that mubarak was personally responsible for every protest to death during the country's revolution the prosecutor went on to claim that quote retribution is the solution for the eighty three year olds currently suffering severe health problems it was carried into the hearing on a stretcher radio host and author stephen leatherman told us he believes the trials merely a diversion from the continuing brutality against protesters in the country. this is a distraction this is to do. your believing . for each in their own trying to absolve themselves of the process things are worse now one of the military. know also. people running the country to say

. >> president obama went to the pentagon to personally announce that he's, quote, turning a page on how the u.s. spends its military dollars. fox 5s tom fitzgerald follows this one tonight. there are warnings from the president's critics. >> reporter: tonight, brian s clear that this is already shaping up to be the next big fight between the white house and congressional republicans. the president wants to slash the budget for the military by a half trillion the next 10 years and it will reshape the spending of the pentagon and how the united states fights wars. this is the first time the president appeared in a pentagon briefing room, but the affect of what was said will be anything but brief. >> since 9/11, our defense budget grew at an extraordinary pace. over the next 10 years, the growth in the defense budget will slow. >> reporter: with the iraq war over and afghan drawdown planned, osama bin laden dead and al qaeda weakened, the president said the pentagon's tactics and spending must change. >> yes, our military will be leaner, but the world must know the united states is goin

taking a live look at 395 near the pentagon. you can see traffic moving along kind of quiet. that will pick occupy this friday, january 6th, 2012. i'm sarah simmons. -- that will pick up on this friday, january 6th, 2012. >> let's get the latest from tucker barnes on the weather. >> an absolutely beautiful afternoon today as we are expecting high temperatures, upper 50s. a few clouds working through at the moment but we should wake up with sunshine. it will be a mostly sunny day today and we're not looking at much in the way of rain for the next couple of days. the forecast will be pretty straightforward from here. temperature at reagan national, it is cold out there. 34 at reagan national. your winds out of the south and west at six miles per hour. the forecast is a good one if you hike warm weather and i know many people do. lots of sunshine and we're looking at nice weather for the weekend. details on that in just a minute. >> thank you. >>> in our top stories this morning, d.c. council member harry thomas, jr. resigned and he is due in federal court later on this morning t

jennifer griffin looks at part of the plan. >> at the pentagon, winners and losers. of the armed services went untouched as the defense chief announced $259 billion in cuts over the next five years. >> this is tough. >> reporter: tough on the ground forces, army and marines slated to lose 100,000 troops. army will shrink to 490,000 troops down from the current 562,000. the marines will slink by 20,000. the new emphasis will be on the smaller, more nimble special operation forces like the navy seals who carried out the bin laden raid. a daring hostage rescue in somalia this week as the president and defense department prepared to announce the new cuts. >> every administration since the fall of the berlin wall has been trying to cut heavy forces. should we ever face conventionm enemy again and we will, the chances are high that we will march off to war with a force that isn't heavy enough to fight land combat. >> defense secretary acknowledged the risks. >> obviously it will be a smaller force. when you have a smaller force there are risks associated with that in terms

in afghanistan and the white house believed when they took over that oh if we give if we give the pentagon no there twenty one thousand troops which obama did right away then you know check afghanistan or done let's move on to health care and these other issues what happened was the military came back and said no it's not enough those twenty thousand are enough we want a hundred thousand and so within the first year of obama's presidency he has tripled the scope and size of the conflict in afghanistan that's a major ask less escalation that's more then the escalation in iraq which the surge is only another twenty thousand thirty thousand more troops so you went from one hundred two hundred thirty thousand troops where in afghanistan you went from thirty thousand to close to a hundred thousand plus about fifty thousand more nato soldiers so the mistake was underestimating the pentagon and what about the so-called strategy and this is must be the gentler face of american war fare total nonsense i mean the idea is a famous phrase winning hearts and minds but essentially what it is it's the wa

it's part of the pentagon's cost-cutting and reorganization plan. sweeping change will make the size of each brigade bigger but eliminate about 80 cows and soldiers. >> a new study on d.c. schools recommended district take action concerning dozens of public schools. d.c. mayor vincent gray commissioned the study. it recommends turning around or closing more than three dozen schools. some of those schools identified are in the poorest neighborhoods of the city. the study also recommends expanding the number of charter schools. the results of the study will be made public today. >> and hardwood name change could not help maryland overtake ducal last night. before the game, the court at the comcast center was renamed in honor of longtime men's basketball coach gary williams. even though he led the terrapins to a national championship, he watched as the blue devils defeated the terrapins, 74-61. there you have it. >> we want to check in with lisa baden to find out what's happening on the roads. >> a big crash in maryland, southbound 95 but before the bel

well indeed i think that what the obama administration and what the pentagon are doing in it and obama signaled that explicitly in his speech today where he he puts again the primacy of the turn towards asia which really is a turn against china i think they're looking forward to this competition and the evolution of a possible cold war type scenario with china which again gives the pentagon a long term enemy which justifies gives rationale to the continued expansion of the us defense budget this does not cut the defense budget it only slows the projected growth of the defense budget so we're looking at trillions more in defense expenditures and a lot of it will be used to justify or justified as a pretext against the people's republic of china something very threatening to china you know just looking. at he said the military budget will continue to grow will be slower than before as you mentioned there until the u.s. quote gets its fiscal house in order what does that mean. well you know there's amazing levels of deficit the deficit level in the united states is now almost one hundred

true to form the pentagon reacted by saying there things are much better than that. ss filing a decent to the and according to the l.a. times today. but are the brass in a position to get what they want? if what they want conflicts with what our civilian government wants? are we still, as a country, beholden to the operators? which is how michael hastings has titled his great new book. "the operators: the wild and terrifying inside story of the war in afghanistan." michael, congratulations on the book. it's great. >> thanks for having me. appreciate it. >> that's how i see the two key insights of your book and of your reporting for rolling stone that weren't about mcchrystal as a person. counter insurgency as sort of a problem. >> i think those are the two main points. the original article was the runaway general. the book is the runaway military. besides the crazy one-month boozy wild maniac killers running around europe and in kandahar and afghanistan, i feel i'm trying to give an insight into the people after ten years of work who ended up running this thing. so th

strategy and as the pentagon starts making big cuts. >> ♪ the thing about that is i was ready to giveou my name ♪ >> justin timberlake and jessica are ready to tie the knot. "good morning washington" continues right now. >> good morning, washington. live and in hd, this is "good morning washington," on your side. >> o'clock a.m. on this thursday, january 5. -- 6:00. i am cynne simpson. >> i am natasha barrett. the changes of the way. >> traffic and weather every ten minutes. we will check in with lisa baden in a moment. first, meteorologist adam caskey. >> close to where we stood before this time of year in terms of morning temperatures. we are in the upper 20s low 30's, cloud deck moving overhead. warm air in general moving overhead. 28 in leesburg, 31 in manassas along with huntingtown, 29 in la plata, 27 in frederick, berkeley springs, 35 in west virginia. it feels, compared to yesterday. highs in the mid 40's this afternoon, becoming partly cloudy. maybe an isolated snow flurries this morning, few and far between, and before 7:00 a.m. mostly sunny tomorrow, mid 50's, maybe even a

one of the things is that i talk to people at the pentagon all the time still. in the talk to me, not sometimes because they want to are they like me or my thoughts. they talk to me because they know it is in their interest to say we better respond to his e- mail even it is just to tell him to go have a nice day. >> you mentioned the white house correspondents' dinner. we cover it all the time. yet never been? >> no. >> would you go? >> probably. i mean, that is a great question. i do not know. my idea is always to go see something i have not seen before. that also is counterbalanced by there's something i've never been comfortable with in washington. i've lived here twice. i did i get into that seen as i probabcene. you mentioned that with "rolling stone -- matt with "rolling stone." is this a generational thing? >> when the main reasons i wanted to write for "rolling stone" was because matt was there. he was doing incredible work. i think there is a generational split in journalism and across the media as well. it can be divided in between those who get in and

why is that a concern to the pentagon? >> to put it in perspective, ever since we developed precision bombs we've been in a challenge 20 plus years. our adversaries have been going deeper to avoid the bombs. we started developing penetrators. it's a physics problem we've been trading off back and forth. they go deeper and we build a penetrator to reach them and they go deeper. it's a 20-year struggle and part of the behavior between ourselves and our adversaries. >> given the height of situations with iran right now, is there any reason to believe that within these hardened fortifications that the iranians now have, that would conceal development of a nuclear weapon? >> absolutely. no doubt about the fact that they are doing that. i'm also confident there's nobody in the world that has the capability we have to reach them. and i'm confident that we're all over this in terms of that capacity and making certain under the circumstances ready when necessary. >> the research is underway. they're developing that new bomb but let'

we are awaiting remarks from president obama at the pentagon. he will unveil a new defense strategy that includes some pretty steep budget cuts, it's to point the way forward for the next decade, good morning i'm jon scott. jenna: i'm jenna lee, the question is where will the cuts come from. you're looking at live pictures from the pentagon, the president will be joined by secretary of defense leon panetta and general marin dempsy. we are expecting drastic cuts in personnel but what that means is yet to be determined, also cuts of so-called next generation weapons systems, as well as future benefits. jon, this is happening across multiple department, not just the military. jon: yeark the pentagon obviously is bracing for pretty veer cuts. chief white house correspondent ed henry live at the white house with the latest. what's this all about, ed? >> reporter: good to see you, jon. this is a regular review the pentagon does and the bottom line is what the -- >> jon i'm sorry, the president has just emerged at the pentagon, along with the joint chie

the pentagon will shift the focus of the military from morris to future challenges., mean more pressure on reserves. old planes and ships will be retired, and that is just the beginning. rebecca is live in the newsroom with more. >> today secretary leon panetta said it was tough finding cuts without hurting u.s. troops or un dominance but the secretary did slash spending . the super committee did not get a deal on the deficit. >> secretary panetta warned today's proposed reductions are only half the size of what could happen if congress does not block the cut schedule, there could be even more automatic cuts twice the size. >> we are convinced it would hold out the force and then click severe damage to our national defense for generations. >> companies like boeing in northern virginia. he helped boeing toward their course for the future. >> we think it is an area where there will be gained. >> in this neighborhood, there is concern. major defense contractors are keep life blood in this area. >> we have done well because the defense contractors are here. >> you have a

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: the pentagon today outlined almost half a trillion dollars in budget cuts that would shrink the size of the u.s. military by eliminating ground forces, retiring ships and planes and delaying some new weapons. good evening, i'm jeffrey brown. >> warner: and i'm margaret warner. on the "newshour" tonight: deputy secretary of defense ashton carter walks us through the plan to reshape the military while trimming costs. >> brown: then, we turn to florida, where judy woodruff has an update on the g.o.p. presidential primary contest. >> warner: kwame holman reports on a key component of president obama's re-election strategy highlighting the political gridlock in washington. >> president obama says this 112th congress-- as divided and partisan as it is-- should work with him on behalf of the american people. >> brown: ray suarez looks at today's jobs problem and the future role of manufacturing. >> warner: and, we have a conversation with veteran reporter tom edsall about the political landscape in a time of scarce resources. >> th

when we call it the "pentagon press corps" it is an extension of the pentagon uses representing the pentagon like a pr firm. >> how concerned are you that in the future when you want to do a profile, the doors will be closed? >> i am not concerned. when you are dedicated to reporting, you find a way to get the story. you find a way to get the story. >> once they knew the story was coming, how tense was it? >> i was back in vermont. duncan had told people this story is either going to be fun or end my career. >> did it? >> he lost his job. he resigned. he was a civilian. i think duncan took a lot of the blame when there is plenty to share. >> who else should take some responsibility? >> admiral smith was in the room. general mcchrystal knows this. he was setting the tone for the entire bunch. he is the ultimate operator. he set the tone. >> was there any fact checking that went on from "rolling stone" to the military? >> yes. "rolling stone" is one of the few magazines like that does extensive research. they did not read quotes. we would not easily do that. >> where were you when the article

the pentagon is taking a page from business' playbook-- it's vowing to restructure, keep costs down, implement a more nimble strategy focused on protecting the growing american interests in asia. the new defense priorities were announced by president obama today. as darren gersh reports, the strategy also reflects another business and political reality, tight budgets. >> reporter: the transition from war to peace has proven difficult for the pentagon. it's a time when skills and focus are often lost. this time, the president vowed, would be different. >> we cannot afford to repeat the mistakes that have been made in the past, after world war ii, after vietnam, when our military was left ill-prepared for the future. as commander in chief, i will not let that happen again. not on my watch. >> reporter: the president plans to shift america's military resources, cutting back on europe and the middle east, and beefing up in asia to counter china's growing clout. to save money, more than 100,000 troops could be cut, and purchases of new weapons systems will be delayed. defense analyst tom

the pentagon will slash its spending by $489 billion over the next ten years. the army and marine also have to cut more than 100,000 service members. major weapons programs will be cut back or eliminated. for the first time in nearly 20 years, active duty military and retirees will be forced to pay more for health care benefits. >> jim miklaszewski reporting for us there. as we said, the army would face a 14% reduction in troops. >>> republican chairman of the house armed services committee responded to the president's plan saying the president has packaged our retreat from the world. the guise of a new strategy to mask his divestment of our military and national defense. this strategy ensures american decline in exchange for more failed domestic programs. that from buck mckeon. >>> one place feeling the effects of the scaled back military presence is iraq where a string of bombings yesterday killed more than 73 people and wounded more than 100. bombers targeted shiite neighborhoods. it was the second major attack in iraq's capital since american troops left th

after the cold war ended, the pentagon needed fewer weapons. defense contractors closed, leaving behind empty parking lots and an exodus of engineering talent. defense secretary leon panetta promised this round of cuts will be different. >> maintaining the vitality of the industrial base and avoiding imposing unacceptable cost or risk on our critical suppliers will guide many of the decisions that we have made. >> reporter: in the late '80s, the pentagon relied on more than 30 big defense contractors. now the number is down to a handful, leaving little room for consolidation. defense analyst todd harrision says the pentagon must figure out which companies are critical to national defense. >> so the fear in the pentagon is that, if we lose some critical skills in our industrial base or some critical capacity to manufacture things, that we might not be able to regain it when we really need it in the future. >> reporter: and the pentagon has clearly defined the defense future it wants to fund. unmanned drones, submarines, new stealth bombers and fi

the pentagon will slash its spending by $489 billion over the next ten year. the army and marines will cut more than 100,000 service members. major weps programs will be cut back or eliminated. for the first time in nearly 20 years active duty military and retirees will be forced to pay more for health care benefits. reaction from capitol hill was swift. a release from the house republican-controlled houseded services committee says this is not a strategy for superiority. it is a menu for mediocrity. and so, brian, the pentagon budget baltttles begin. >> thanks. >>> with us here in new york, retired army colonel jack jacobs, a recipient of the medal of honor and combat veteran of the vietnam war. we have been to the battlefields in both dual wars over seas. we have seen the build-up of the military complex, but what does this now mean for the future? >> it means we're going to have to do what we need to do to defend this very large country with far fewer people. if you want to save money, you can save money by cancelling programs but you're going to save money