WASHINGTON, November 21 (Sputnik) – Planned reductions to the US Department of Defense (DoD) budget would make it impossible for the military to follow US President Barack Obama's national security strategy, Pentagon spokesperson Admiral John Kirby has said.
"Sequestration would literally render it impossible for us [DoD] to execute the defense strategy that President Obama signed out in 2012," Kirby said Thursday.
Kirby described the potential spending reductions as "arbitrary and unnecessary", adding that if implemented, the cuts would take another $500 billion dollars out of the defense budget over the next ten years.
"This is the money you use to keep the car moving. To keep the gas in it. To keep the people trained in how to drive it," Kirby stressed, adding that cutting this budget money will force the military to develop a new security strategy at a time when the world is both dangerous and uncertain.
"This is not the time to have to rewrite a whole new strategy," Kirby said.
Sequestration refers to a law that sets a hard limit on the size of the US federal budget. In 2011, Congress authorized $1.2 trillion in cuts across defense and non-defense expenditures through 2021.
The cuts will continue to drain the US military budget in 2016 and beyond.
