a challenge for current u.s. missile defenses. a recent report from the national defense strategy commission, military experts and retired officers warned, america has reached the point of a full-blown national security crisis. in any future battles with russia or china. due to years of pentagon budget cuts during the obama administration. the scathing report also is of the u.s. is falling behind in developing new weapons. with respect to hypersonic s in particular, the united states finds itself trailing china and perhaps russia as well. all of this raises the possibility that america may find itself at a technological disadvantage in future conflicts. one of the reports said president trump must continue to spend more on defense. we have to do five things at once. we need to continue the fight against terrorism, we have to deter iran and north korea. we have to continue to counter russia and of course we have to deal with the pacing threat that we face in a resurgent china.
manage shinn ping for some time. something you don t see normally, political skills. pete clemons traveling with vice president biden. thank you, sir. the white house insists the white house is not trying to contain china, just simply playing an historic role of peace keeper in the pacific. is that a role congress will embrace in a time of pentagon budget cuts, national security challenges in the middle east, and of course the national mood at home, which is increasingly suspicious of being overextended abroad? joining me now, somebody who s one of the wise men of washington, former republican senator richard lugar, former chairman of the foreign relations committee. good morning. good morning. let s talk about the pivot to asia here, specifically this dispute between japan and china. the japanese obviously want the u.s. to be more declare tiffi here in its public anger with china and biden is just not clearly is not sending that message. is that the right call? well, the fac
provision of the patriot act, which allows the government to go to a third party to get our communication. and that s the issue. tony, turning to a slightly different topic, i want to talk about money. secretary of defense hagel was out today talking about the pentagon budget cuts. let s take a listen. if sequester-level cuts persist, dod would experience nearly $1 trillion in defense spending reductions over the next ten years. to help dod balance strategic ends, ways, and means under these budget scenarios, the strategic choice of the management review scrutinized every aspect of dod s budget. everything was on the table. so, what does this all this mean for what we re doing in afghanistan going forward and our presence there? within the past week, there s been a bipartisan, much like the amash vote on nsa. there s been a real moving back towards reducing the funding for afghanistan. now, general dunford is doing his best with the commander of forces there. he s now debating
relevant committees on capitol hill which would be the intelligence committees. patti ann: all he has to do is inform them. he doesn t need their approval? doesn t need their approval. but at the end of the day he owns the operation because he personally signed off on it f it goes back it his is his personal reputation on the line. patti ann: kt mcfarland. thank you as always. bill: 17 months down the road. kt, thank you. a horrifying scene caught on camera. a man literally swallowed up by a sinkhole and the desperate effort to try to save him from this here. patti ann: a political tug-of-war that could result in major pentagon budget cuts. are politics jeopardizing our national security? senator lindsey graham thinks show. it was the republican leadership who agreed with the concept, if the super-committee failed let s have decimating of the defense department as one of the consequences. the party of ronald reagan would have never allowed that to happen. here is my solution. if th
that s the hope was that such a disaster, congress would respond and do what was right. clayton: how big of a threat could these cuts be to our nation? the author of outlaw platoon, shaun parnell. nice to see you, you look at the pending pentagon budget cuts and you think that this potentially could lead to war. we could have a problem with our military readiness, if we were to face war, why? oh, absolutely. it all goes back to the old addage, if you want to prolong and preserve peace, you have to prepare for war. a nation has to prepare for war. the best way to do that is by having a formidable and robust military. here is the deal. no nation has ever deterred an enemy from attack or won a war by shrinking and hollowing out its force, my thoughts. and this of course is a result of congressional gridlock, let s break it down for you, people. we re talking about 500