Whether it actually comes to fruition or not, right now the Department of Defense is looking at having its budget cut in ways that only the most passionate peaceniks could have hoped for.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently outlined a $525 billion budget for next year that would be the first step in a deficit-cutting plan that calls for a reduction in projected defense spending of $487 billion over 10 years.
And there are potentially even deeper cuts coming. The deficit-cutting super committee's failure last fall to come up with at least $1.2 trillion in savings means automatic, across-the-board cuts for defense and domestic programs beginning next January, which would mean an additional $492 billion reduction over a decade.
Many D.C. observers say they doubt such cuts will occur, but if Diane Randall has anything to say about it, they will.
Randall is executive secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, which she calls "a Quaker lobby in the public interest." Her group is lobbying hard to see those defense cuts come through as currently laid out.
This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2012.