Last month, the Obama Administration released a strategy document and a budget outline for the Department of Defense that proposed to cut projected spending by $259 billion over the next five years. But the United States is still expected to spend more than $2.7 trillion on its military over that period. The costs of the war in Afghanistan could add several hundred billion more. The Pentagon’s base budget will be larger, in inflation-adjusted terms, than the annual average spent during Ronald Reagan’s eight years in office. We spend too much on our military because we have asked it to do too much. President Obama would largely continue this pattern, pledging to defend other countries that can and should defend themselves, and threatening to involve U.S. troops in conflicts that we would be wise to avoid. Christopher Preble will discuss the Pentagon’s budget and outline an alternative strategy that would enable U.S. taxpayers to spend far less on the military, but still keep the nation strong and secure.