Do you agree in cutting the Military spending downsizing or Defense? Military will withstand cuts, Obama tells graduating cadets

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — President Barack Obama vowed Wednesday to keep the military strong even as he winds down the wars of the last decade and takes the budget knife to Pentagon spending in an age of increasing government austerity.

Addressing the graduating cadets of the Air Force Academy, Obama said spending cuts were inevitable for the armed forces but he promised to guard against reductions that would compromise the nation’s security. Dismissing talk of national decline, he described an “American century” in which the United States would continue to flourish.

“Yes, as today’s wars end, our military, and our Air Force, will be leaner,” he told a stadium filled with the next generation of pilots and other officers. “But as commander in chief, I will not allow us to make the mistakes of the past. We still face very serious threats. As we’ve seen in recent weeks, with al-Qaida in Yemen, there are still terrorists who seek to kill our citizens.”

He added: “We’ll keep our military, and our Air Force, fast and flexible and versatile. We will maintain our military superiority in all areas: air, land, sea, space and cyber.”

“You are the first class in nine years that will graduate into a world where there are no Americans fighting in Iraq,” Obama said. “For the first time in your lives ... Osama bin Laden is no longer a threat to our country. We’ve put al-Qaida on the path to defeat. And you are the first graduates since 9/11 who can clearly see how we’ll end the war in Afghanistan.”

He said that his policies would end those wars while still making the country safer, and he noted that the graduates would have fewer deployments and more time to train and rest between missions than their predecessors.

But Obama went into little detail about how financial restraints would affect the Air Force and the military at large.

He has proposed a five-year spending plan for the Pentagon that includes nearly $480 billion in cuts, but that amount could increase sharply if his administration and Congress do not reach agreement on a plan to avoid deeper automatic cuts currently programmed into law.