How do you define budget cuts?

The Defense Department says it is cutting its budget. First of all, one has to ask what is meant by the budget. Is it the so-called base budget? Or, does it include the costs of our wars?

The base budget for FY2012 is $531 billion. It will go down to $525 in FY2013, but then goes up in FY2014 to $534 and eventually reaches $567 in FY2017, five years hence. That looks like a 2% annual growth to me.

The war budget will go down from $115 billion to $88.4 billion next year. Of course, the war budget costs assume a reasonable transition in Afghanistan as well as Iraq. Does anyone believe that either transition will be as smooth and as quick as projected?