WASHINGTON — When the Bush administration unveils its annual spending request today, it is expected to ask for a defense budget of $481 billion -- near historic highs, even when adjusted for inflation.
It will also ask for additional funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, taking the cost of those wars this year to close to $165 billion, and will present estimates for next year's costs that would push war spending above the total cost of the Vietnam War.
But if the military's top officers have their way, today's proposal may be only a precursor to a future of even larger defense budgets.
The chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force are gearing up for a long-term campaign to convince Congress and the public that the growing demands of the Iraq war -- plus the administration's aggressive global security ambitions -- require tens of billions more each year to meet the nation's defense needs.
For more than a year, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the outgoing Army chief of staff, has pointed out that defense spending accounts for about 3.8% of the gross domestic product -- a figure that is projected to drop over the next five years, to near the lowest levels since World War II, even though the U.S. is involved in protracted fighting.
He is calling for a wider national debate on whether that percentage should be significantly increased -- and the chiefs of the Navy and Air Force said in interviews last week that they would publicly support that call in upcoming hearings on the defense budget.
"In working that [budget] problem, I believe I'm seeing challenges that leads us to the notion that maybe it's time to have this discussion about a higher percentage of GDP" devoted to defense, Air Force Gen. T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley said in a telephone interview during a trip to Afghanistan and Iraq.
"It's going to be very, very hard to get where we're going as defined in the [Pentagon's strategic plans] and to do this business on a global scale with the resources that we have."
Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen added: "At 3.8%, it just isn't enough for the strategic appetite, and the strategic appetite is tied directly to the world we're living in."
According to a senior Pentagon official, the Air Force alone is expected to tell Congress that it will need an additional $20 billion per year over the next five years, on top of the White House funding request, just to meet the strategic plans laid out by the Pentagon and the increasing demands resulting from the troop buildup in Iraq.
