It’s been less than 50 days since Army Gen. Martin Dempsey took the position as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but he’s been swift to move forward despite “overwhelming” issues.
“I’m not the first person who’s ever had to deal with issues like this,” he said Friday at the Military Reporters and Editors Conference in Arlington, Va. “So I like to remind myself that there were 17 others that tried to figure this out before me.”
Dempsey said he is not intimidated by the current restraints looming over the defense budget. Budget discussions are important, he said, but to understand what the nation really needs, national leaders need to move past those discussions.
Some worry that America’s economic problems will complicate its efforts to remain globally engaged.
“I don’t buy that,” Dempsey said. “I’m of the mind, first, that we should decide we will remain engaged, and then just find a way to do it in a new fiscal environment. We can figure it out.”
Even with the anticipated withdrawal of American troops from Iraq at the end of this year, Dempsey said it would be a mistake for the U.S. to scale back on global engagement — and it would send the wrong message.
“There is a huge appetite for partnering with the United States. We are the international partner of choice,” he said. “The world in which we live demands greater engagement, not less engagement.”