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U.S. President Barack Obama, left, shakes hands with outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, right, during a "Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Change of Responsibility Ceremony" on Sept. 30 at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Va.ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES

By the time he's finished, the United States may have lost an aircraft carrier or two, several hundred F-35s and perhaps 50,000 combat troops – all sacrificed on Capitol Hill's budget-cutting battlegrounds

General Martin Dempsey is the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff hand-picked by Barack Obama and his tour of duty seems certain to include some of the most wrenching cuts ever made in the world's biggest military as well as the exit from foreign wars as more than 100,000 combat troops come home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

A decorated combat veteran, Gen. Dempsey is the first post-Vietnam-era general named to the pinnacle of the U.S. military, and the first whose entire career was in the all-volunteer military. But his toughest fights may lie ahead at the White House and Congress across the Potomac River from the Pentagon, where the world's sole remaining superpower's military faces a loss of $1-trillion in defence spending.

Former defence secretary Robert Gates, who rapidly promoted Gen. Dempsey, praised his "keen mind, strategic vision, quiet confidence and the energy he brings to every assignment."

But ordinary soldiers may know him better as the "crooning general," whose holiday appearances – sometimes in full dress uniform – belting out Broadway favourites and traditional Irish tunes have become a staple in his commands.

The general, who fills his pockets every morning with half-a-dozen laminated cards commemorating some of the soldiers killed under his command in Iraq, warned the million-person U.S. military that tough times lie ahead.

"Keeping our military the best-led, best-trained, and best-equipped force in the world is the non-negotiable imperative," Gen. Dempsey, 59, said Monday in a message to troops scattered around the globe, after being sworn in Friday. "Doing so in a new fiscal environment will be hard, but we've overcome similar challenges in our past."

Gen. Dempsey, a graduate of the elite West Point military academy, has a master's degree in English from Duke University, but acknowledged he would need some refresher courses in economics.

Quitting Afghanistan in sufficient numbers to meet Mr. Obama's political imperative – the President wants a drawdown to begin next summer in time for his re-election bid in November – without surrendering the gains bloodily won on the ground by a surge of tens of thousands of U.S. troops may be Gen. Dempsey's toughest and most immediate overseas challenge.

Handing Afghan security over to Kabul while "making sure that the security gains we have made are not squandered by the scourge of corruption," will be difficult, warned Admiral Michael Mullen, the outgoing chairman, who created a stir when he accused Pakistan of attempting to destabilize Afghanistan, where more than 100,000 U.S. troops are battling a raging Taliban insurgency.

"I urge Marty to remember the importance of Pakistan to all of this, to try and do a better job than I did with that vexing and yet vital relationship," Adm. Mullen added.

Even as China flexes its greater military reach and U.S. hawks call for spending to re-equip a U.S. military worn down by a decade of hard fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the mood in Washington favours cuts. Big ticket programs such as buying more than 2,300 F-35 stealth fighter bombers are on the block. Allies, such as Canada, that have pledged billions to buy their own F-35s could be left looking for alternatives.

Calls to cut tens of thousands of troops – especially from the army if as it disengages from intensive combat operations – are increasingly heard in Congress, although legislators will fight to protect bases and units in their own states.

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