Bush seeks massive defense hike

Not since the Reagan administration charged into Washington, pledging to repair a "hollow" Army while confronting the Soviet "evil empire" around the world, has the US defense budget been such a rocket-hot issue. In terms of size, disposition, and politics, it is likely to be at the forefront of national debate through this election year.

In his State of the Union speech tonight at 9 Eastern time, George Bush will lay down his marker.

He wants the biggest increase in military spending in 20 years. That is sure to involve difficult tradeoffs, especially at a time of returning red ink in Washington. Mr. Bush also wants to increase certain domestic programs - school spending and help for the unemployed, for example - as well as cut taxes. On the military front, he's still enamored of what could be a highly expensive missile defense system.

But in the fight against international terrorism, Bush says, "our military must have every resource, every weapon needed to achieve full and final victory."

This means expanding and equipping sophisticated and secretive Special Operations Forces. At the same time, the shift to dealing with unconventional threats requires the expensive training and posting of US forces in more places around the world. All of this comes at a time of unprecedented uncertainty regarding US national security.

A recent Pentagon report warns of "rapid and unexpected changes" as well as "new geopolitical trends shaping the world," including "a great deal of uncertainty about the potential sources of military threats, the conduct of war in the future, and the form that threats and attacks against the nation will take."

The war in Afghanistan has spotlighted the value of small, highly mobile commando units working with highly accurate - and highly lethal - weapons dropped from the sky.

But it's also been a boost to the supporters of some of the most expensive conventional weaponry: naval battle groups centered on aircraft carriers, as well as long-range bombers and transport aircraft.

In order to complete their assigned missions, each of the services wants new gear. The Navy wants a new destroyer ($750 million each); the Air Force, a new fighter jet ($180 million each); the Army, a new armed reconnaissance helicopter and howitzer ($32 million and $23 million each); and the Marine Corps, a new troop-carrying tilt-rotor aircraft ($80 million each).

Bush's defense spending blueprint continues the military modernization begun under former President Clinton, provides for a pay raise, and includes a $10 billion war reserve to continue the fight against terrorism (which has been costing about $1 billion a month).

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