Obama Tips His Hand: Defense Cuts Come First

That headline on Drudge takes you to a Business Insider article that reads in part:

The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward ripped into President Barack Obama on “Morning Joe” today, saying he’s exhibiting a “kind of madness I haven’t seen in a long time” for a decision not to deploy an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf because of budget concerns.

“Can you imagine Ronald Reagan sitting there and saying, ‘Oh, by the way, I can’t do this because of some budget document?’” Woodward said.

“Or George W. Bush saying, ‘You know, I’m not going to invade Iraq because I can’t get the aircraft carriers I need?’” Or even Bill Clinton saying, ‘You know, I’m not going to attack Saddam Hussein’s intelligence headquarters,’ … because of some budget document?”

American military resolve goes back even further. Reagan renewed America’s military confidence after it had been eroded by the Vietnam War and a feckless President Jimmy Carter. President Carter’s only use of the American military was to crash a bunch of helicopters in the Iranian desert in a failed attempt to free the hostages. But the article above also calls to mind Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet. Roosevelt sent the fleet, which was based in the Atlantic Ocean, around the world, but not everyone approved of it:

Senator Eugene Hale, the chairman of the Senate Naval Appropriation Committee, threatened to cut the fleet’s funding.

Responding in typical fashion, Roosevelt replied that he already had the money and dared Congressional leaders to “try and get it back.”

In light of the President’s recent funding priorities, is the Benghazi debacle really surprising?